On October 10th, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice approving the acquisition of shares in New Tide Media by Focus Media with additional restrictive conditions after legal review. This approval marks significant progress in the consolidation of the highly anticipated elevator media industry.

This year, the State Administration for Market Regulation and six other departments issued the "Opinions on Vigorously Promoting the High Quality Development of the Advertising Industry in the New Era", which clearly proposes to support the digital, intelligent, and scenario based development of outdoor advertising, encourage advertising enterprises with conditions to integrate the entire industry chain resources, and cultivate leading enterprises with international competitiveness. This provides a clear industrial policy background for the regulatory direction of this transaction.

Focus Media stated that the company will promote this transaction in accordance with the law and regulations, with a focus on price stability, fair services, etc. While releasing industry integration efficiency, it will continue to protect the legitimate rights and interests of advertisers, location resource holders, and other market operators.

Balancing Scale and Responsibility: Maintaining Market Competition with Stricter Constraints

The announcement shows that Focus Media has a market share of 50% -55% in the elevator media advertising market in China, while New Tide Media has a market share of 5% -10%. After concentration, the total market share of the entity is 55% -60%. At the same time, after in-depth investigation of the overall operation of the advertising industry, the State Administration of Market Supervision believes that Internet advertising has become the leading advertising channel in the advertising industry at present (in 2025, the proportion of advertising revenue to the total advertising revenue will exceed 85%); Transportation advertising, traditional outdoor large screen advertising and other advertising categories will form certain competitive constraints on elevator media advertising in terms of pricing and effectiveness.

In response, Focus Media stated that the purpose of this transaction is to integrate industry resources and enhance service capabilities, and the achievements of industry development will be shared with customers and partners. With the expansion of enterprise size and market influence after integration, Focus will effectively fulfill its public commitments to advertisers and industry partners, continue to fulfill regulatory commitments, accept supervision, and lead the media industry back to value competition, promote the industry to evolve towards high-quality ecology and efficient synergy, strengthen its service capabilities for brand building and the real economy, and promote the long-term healthy and orderly development of the industry.

Stable market expectations: Clear commitment to safeguarding the rights and interests of customers and partners

In response to the two core focuses raised by relevant parties during the transaction review process, namely the issue of media procurement costs after industry integration and the constraint mechanism of cooperation points, Fenzhong has proposed effective solutions to address potential concerns.

At the level of advertiser rights, Focus solemnly promises that without justifiable reasons, the actual annual transaction price of each city after concentration shall not exceed the corresponding actual transaction price of Focus Media and New Tide Media in the 24 months prior to the effective date. Focus always prioritizes customer rights. At the same time, Fenzhong will continue to fulfill its existing customer contracts and all commercial terms, ensuring that different types of customers receive corresponding media services on the principles of fairness, reasonableness, and non discrimination.

Regarding the constraint mechanism of cooperation points, exclusive cooperation is a common arrangement in the industry, mainly used to solve pain points such as limited elevator space, advertising affecting user experience, and safety hazards. It is also a preferred cooperation method for many media point resource holders. But in order to further expand the independent choice rights of elevator media point resource holders, Fenzhong promises to waive all related rights arising from exclusive terms that have been established and effective with property management companies and other elevator media point resource holders; Exclusive terms and automatic renewal terms shall not be reached when signing or renewing points.

The above commitment means that the concerns about price fluctuations caused by industry integration have been eliminated, and the original brand advertising plan and annual budget certainty have been institutionalized. The brand communication layout can be stably implemented and orderly promoted. After the centralized completion, Fenzhong will provide partners with more stable profits, comprehensive digital operation services, and efficient resource docking to promote higher quality market competition.

Improving the quality of competition: from scale integration to capability upgrading

In recent years, with the accelerated digital and intelligent transformation of the Chinese advertising market, advertisers' requirements for media platforms have shifted from simple coverage scale to comprehensive capabilities such as advertising efficiency, digital operation, effectiveness measurement, and brand growth. For the elevator media industry, the focus of future competition will further shift towards service, efficiency, and innovation capabilities.

After the completion of this transaction, Fenzhong and Xinchao are expected to further collaborate in media resources, operational systems, and technological capabilities. By optimizing resource allocation and improving operational efficiency, more resources will be invested in digital operations, intelligent advertising, data capabilities, and advertising effectiveness measurement.

For Fenzhong, the more important aspect of this integration is to transform scale advantages into capability advantages. Focus Media stated that it will deeply integrate the intelligent advertising systems, big data platforms, AI technology tools, and research and development capabilities of both parties, concentrate its technological advantages on upgrading the industry's digital intelligence, actively practice the industry orientation of digital, scenario based, and intelligent development of outdoor advertising, create a new advertising communication model that adapts to digital consumption scenarios, and transform the scale effects generated by integration into technological innovation, operational efficiency, and customer service capabilities, sharing the long-term value of industry development with advertisers, partners, and industry participants.

For the elevator media industry, what is truly worth paying attention to is not simply the change in market share, but whether the integration can further improve the quality of competition - when competition shifts from resources to efficiency, service, and innovation, the industry can truly transform its scale advantage into customer value and long-term value.