Hong Kong's crowded magazine industry will face even more competition with the launch of a free Chinese-language weekly this week.
Due out on Thursday, Metropop - published by Metro Publishing Hong Kong, the publisher of free daily Metro - is expected to compete directly for advertising dollars with titles such as Next Media's Next Magazine and Sing Tao News Corp's East Week.
According to latest figures released by media research firm admango, total advertising revenue for magazines was $704 million in the first three months of this year, up 5.89 per cent from last year. It accounted for 16.22 per cent of total market share.
Media agents said Metropop, which will be distributed at MTR stations, may help attract more spending from luxury product clients, as its target audience is young executives with high spending power.
'We see room for Metropop to succeed,' said David Fung, vice-president of media agent Carat Hong Kong. 'Several luxury brand clients may appreciate its clear and clean image and so shift their budgets from mass titles like Next Magazine.'
Mr Fung said travel and leisure titles like Emperor Group's Weekend Weekly and Hong Kong Economic Times Group's U Magazine may also be affected.