Sporting events such as this year's World Cup and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing are expected have positive results on China's online ad market.

Online advertising spend in China is forecast to grow some 50 percent, from $731 million this year to $1.79 billion in 2008, according to Deutsche Bank, VNUnet reports. Beijing-based Analysys International, however, forecasts a more conservative rate of 35 percent: from $605 million this year to $816 million in 2008. Smaller players are expanding at least 10 percentage points faster than the larger portals, increasing the average ad revenue growth rate, according to Deutsche Bank.

Brand-focused advertising accounted for 71.3 percent of the $405 million market last year, according to Analysys, with search ad spend accounting for the remainder. "With the rapid development of search engine advertising, the market share of brand advertising will decrease to 67.63 percent in 2006," according to an Analysys report.

Analysys expects the 2008 Olympic Games to spur ad spending, with Chinese internet portals Sina and Sohu both having made more than $5 million this year from ad spending related to the soccer World Cup.