Over the next year, China will overtake Europe's top two advertising economies, the United Kingdom and Germany, and claim the United State's place as the biggest contributor to the growth of global advertising, according to a report on world media.

By the end of 2008, China will also account for 6.8 percent of the amount spent globally on all media, according to the report, This Year, Next Year, by WPP's combined media operation Group M.

China's advertising economy will overtake Germany's 5.3 percent share this year, and what is forecast to be the UK's 5.7 percent share by the end of 2008. At that time, only Japan, with an 8.5 percent share, and the United States, with a 36.6 percent share, will have a bigger share in the global ad market.

The growth will be boosted even further by next year's Beijing Olympics, and will surpass the U.S. as “the principal source of annual media growth” next year for the first time, according to Media Guardian.

This year, China is expected to account for 16 percent of the $24 billion growth in media spend worldwide, compared to the United State's 19 percent. But next year, China will account for 24 percent of the $29 billion in growth the report forecasts, while the United States will account for 20 percent of that growth. And like China, advertising in the United States will also be further boosted next year, but by advertising for the presidential election instead of the Olympics.

“The U.S. is at the beginning of what may be a western cyclical slowdown which is limiting growth,” Adam Smith, futures director at Group M, is quoted as saying by Media Guardian. “China is in a completely different part of the cycle with, it seems, no end to the curve it is on.”