comScore to Close China Operations

Audience measurement firm comScore is closing its office in Beijing, as a result of operating losses, according to online publication Campaign Asia.

Last year, comScore launched a service called Extended Video in the country, delivering programme-level insights into online video consumption, including content viewed, who is watching and levels of engagement, on a weekly and daily basis. Now, all China operations will be wound down by the end of the year, and the entire Beijing team of nine, which is led by Xinyu Huang (pictured), will be made redundant at the end of this month.

In an internal memo obtained by Campaign, Will Hodgman, EVP of International, said that after the end of 2018 China will not be reported individually, but will be accounted for in comScore's worldwide and APAC roll-ups; and in 2019, comScore's Hong Kong team will serve China clients remotely. In addition, the firm's partnership with CTR will come to an end. According to Hodgman, comScore China has 'been in the red' for years, and was unlikely to turn around without 'substantially more investments'. In a statement given to Campaign, comScore added that the biggest costs of sustaining the China operations were infrastructure and data, as well as the 'challenging' legal and regulatory requirements often faced by foreign firms doing business in the country. Amid rumours that the teams in Singapore and Japan would also be affected, the firm confirmed that it was not contemplating reductions internationally or domestically, in APAC or anywhere else.

Earlier this week, comScore put figures on huge audit and legal costs for the last two years, following investigations into accounting irregularities. For the first nine months of 2017, the firm lost between $191m and $208m on revenues of between $300m and $310m; with audit costs as high as $60m in 2017 and $48m in 2016, and legal settlements costing between $80m and $84m.

Web site: www.comscore.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.