Alibaba Group, China's e-commerce giant, is beta-testing a new social-networking-product. An Alibaba Group spokeswoman told Reuters the product will be called "Laiwang" and will be available on the PC and downloadable onto Android smartphones and iPhones.

Laiwang is said to be similar to the Google+ network.

China as Global Ad Growth Driver

Laiwang is the latest sign that brands must take China's ad market and its various platforms into account not only as they expand in the Asia Pacific, but also in other markets, including, eventually, North America, where these products are sure to grow as well.

Some companies, such as Microsoft, have absorbed this lesson already.

Ditto Zynga, which is joining forces with Chinese internet mobile Tencent to launch a heavily localized version of CityVille for Chinese audiences, running on Tencent’s developer platform.

While the US will still maintain a comfortable lead in ad spending in 2013, number three China’s spending will surge in the next two years, according to Zenith Optimedia. China, expected to spend $26.1 billion on major media advertising this year, will increase that figure almost 49% to $38.5 billion in 2013. By comparison, the US will increase ad spend about 9%, from $151.7 billion this year to $166 billion in 2013. Number two Japan will also maintain its position, growing ad spend 3% from $46.1 billion to $47.6 billion.

Global internet advertising expenditures will rise about 33% between 2011 and 2013, Zenith Optimedia also said. Internet ad spend is expected to total about $72.5 billion this year and reach $96.4 billion in 2013.

Other Companies' Endeavors to Watch

Another Chinese company making inroads in the global digital ad space is Baidu.  It recently gave the market a peak at its forthcoming mobile operating system and application platform. The platform, based on the Android OS, is called Baidu Yi and it is designed to give third-party application developers a channel to distribute games, maps and other apps - similar to the Apple's App Store.