AMERICANS LEADS THE WORLD IN CAR OWNERSHIP, CHINA AND INDIA FAST CATCHING UP IN ABSOLUTE NUMBER OF CARS OWNED

AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURERS TAP INTO THE ENORMOUS CHINA MARKET DEVOTING CLOSE TO HALF THE REGION’S AUTOMOTIVE ADVERTISING SPEND As economies continue to thrive hand in hand with consumers’ propensity to spend, the race to drive car ownership is on, according to a 2006 Media Index study published by The Nielsen Company. As the Study reveals, The highest automotive ownership in Asia Pacific region are New Zealand (82%), South Korea ( 74%) and Australia (70%) respectively. In Thailand, three out of ten who are age 20 and above claim to own a car, representing 14MM people followed by Singapore (21%), Hong Kong (16%) and Philippines (10%). ( Chart 1 and 2.1) The world’s largest in terms of car penetration and absolute numbers is USA with nearly nine in 10 Americans claim to own a car, representing 190.3MM people. Further, the USA has enjoyed an increase of eight percentage points in penetration over the past 5 years – the highest recorded growth globally. Saudi Arabia follows the USA with the second highest car ownership (86%) . (Chart 2) Car penetration in New Zealand ranks third after the USA and Saudi Arabia. Australia and Malaysia have enjoyed increases of seven percentage points over the past 5 years outperforming the other markets where year on year car penetration has remained quite stable. When it comes to absolute numbers of cars owned, Thailand rank fifth of the world’s top markets ahead of Saudi Arabia, Australia and Malaysia that have much higher car penetration (Chart 2.1) The real opportunity lies with the two fastest growing countries: India and China. While having seemingly low penetration, India (9%) and China (6%) rank among the world’s top markets in absolute numbers of cars owned. (Chart 1, 2.1) “With these kinds of numbers, China’s market for car parts and accessories is already huge, and car manufacturers will be tapping into that potential. In addition, with current penetration sitting at the world’s lowest, the opportunity to entice the emerging and growing affluent Chinese consumers into car ownership is immense,” said Ms Siriporn Kittichutchawarl, Director of Nielsen Media Research ( Thailand), The Nielsen Company. “And because of China’s size, increasing penetration by one or two percent would bring tremendous rewards for the automotive industry.” According to Nielsen’s advertising information service, the car manufacturers invested a sizeable 4,145 MM Thai Baht in Thai market in 2006 (US$119 million). The highest advertising investment in 2006 is in China market with US$1.85 billion on advertising in China alone – amounting to nearly half the region’s total automotive advertising - to grow their share of the country’s valuable, and burgeoning, car market. (Chart 3). “Affordability is obviously a consideration in some countries: as economies rebound, people are likely to indulge themselves by acquiring a car or upgrading to a new model,” commented Siriporn. Across Asia Pacific, automotive and related companies spent over US$3.95 billion on advertising in 2006 in total, of which China took the lion’s share of 47 percent, followed by Australia (17%), India (15%) and South Korea (6%) and Thailand (3%). Car manufacturers invested the least in the Philippines, spending only US$27MM on advertising in 2006. (Chart 3) The top 10 car brands contributed to one third of the total automotive advertising expenditure in 2006 with Toyota, the region’s biggest advertiser in automotive-related advertising in 2006, spending US$292MM, followed at a distant second by Hyundai ($197MM) and Nissan ($154MM) in third place. Toyota is also the biggest advertiser in Thai market with total advertising spending of 1,296 MM Thai Bath in 2006 followed by Isuzu (720 MM Thai Baht) and Chevrolet (393 MM Thai Baht) respectively ( Chart 4) Media Index is a single source multi-media survey from The Nielsen Company, providing insight into consumers’ media consumption of newspaper/magazines reading, TV viewing, radio listening, cinema visits, internet surfing; their lifestyles, attitudes, transport usage and product consumption across nine markets in Asia Pacific. Global TGI (Target Group Index), a partner of The Nielsen Company, is a global network of single source market research surveys, providing data and marketing insight from over 50 countries across six continents. TGI is operated by the KMR Group (Kantar Media Research) www.kmr-group.com About The Nielsen Company The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek), trade shows and the newspaper sector (Scarborough Research). The privately held company has more than 42,000 employees and is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com . Click for photo release at www.thaipr.net

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