VisionChina Media, the largest mainland provider of LCD advertising panels on buses, has set aggressive expansion goals after listing on the Nasdaq in December. But can the company oust strong competitors to dominate a fragmented market?
'We want to expand to the 30 top cities in China,' chief financial officer Dina Liu said. The company operates in 14 major cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
In addition to buses, Ms Liu said the company wanted to target 'all cities with subways'. VisionChina only has screens on subway trains in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, but hopes to do the same in Chongqing, Nanjing, Shanghai and Tianjin.
After raising US$108 million in its initial public offering last December, Ms Liu said the company wanted to double its network of 33,000 LCD screens in coming years.
VisionChina sells airtime to advertisers on its LCD network on buses and subway trains. Since mainland television stations are granted licences to offer programmes on public transportation systems as an extension of their core business, VisionChina must sign a contract with each television station, before tying up with a bus or subway operator.
Ms Liu said the company's bus platform had attracted a lot of attention from fast-food chains including KFC and McDonald's, and beverage suppliers such as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. 'Millions of commuters travelling by bus in those cities will be watching those advertisements as they commute to work or school everyday,' she said.
'Advertisers also love the fact that they can target multiple cities at one time for regional or national marketing campaigns,' said VisionChina chief strategy officer David Chen. Eighty per cent of advertising budgets were allocated for national campaigns, he said.
