Our take:Total advertising revenue from our digital out-of-home advertising reached $135 million in the second quarter of 2008, up 76.2% as compared to $76.9 million in the second quarter of 2007 and 24.4% sequentially.
Within our digital out-of-home advertising business, the revenue from our commercial location network in the second quarter was $81.1 million, up 58.9% year over year and 29.9% quarter over quarter. The revenue from our in-store network was $17 million, up 135% year over year but down slightly due to our continuing effort to optimize the combined in-store network coverage during the integration of CGEN acquisitions. The revenue from our poster frame network in the second quarter was $37.3 million, up 101.2% year over year and 27.9% quarter over quarter. The commercial location network, in-store network, and poster frame network contributed 59.9%, 12.6%, and 27.5% of the total digital out-of-home advertising revenue in the second quarter respectively.
Focus Media is now generating (in China) -- in a single quarter -- what would amount to about a third of the total advertising revenue on digital signage networks in the United States in an entire year, even including such mega-networks as Wal-Mart TV. That's impressive in its own right, but perhaps even more impressive is the fact that this part of the business is growing at an astounding rate, and has been since the company went public. Of course the bulk of the revenue comes from their massive office building network, and the in-store network (much newer and smaller) brings in "only" $17 million a quarter. Interestingly, the company continues to make good money on their (static) poster network, which counts for more than twice what they make on the in-store digital stuff.