“Women hold up half the sky,” former Chinese leader Mao Zedong famously said. More than fifty years on, women in China are doing so online, driving digital trends and fast becoming a cohort that marketers ignore at their peril.

It’s official: WhatsApp Status ads are coming, likely sometime in 2020. And though paid advertising is just one piece of the puzzle for companies looking to connect with customers on WhatsApp, it’s a major change for the chat app, which has so far remained ad-free.

eMarketer junior forecasting analyst Nazmul Islam discusses our ad revenue numbers for Tencent and the growth of WeChat.

Adults in China spend more time on digital than they do with any other media. Moreover, time spent on digital will continue to grow at a rapid pace, encroaching on time spent with traditional media.