Nielsen to measure digital ads in partnership with China's Tencent

Nielsen NV announced on Wednesday that it is partnering with Tencent Holdings to measure its digital audience in a move that could direct more ad dollars from companies in the United States to China's biggest social network.
Nielsen said it is launching its Digital Ad Ratings, which tracks unique users, reach and frequency of a digital ad across computers, tablets and smartphones for the first time in China.
Comscore, which offers a similar service and competes with Nielsen, said it is already available in China.
The online gaming company Tencent, which also operates the popular mobile messaging app WeChat with 500 million monthly active users, has been making a big push to increase its advertising revenue especially through mobile.
"Until now there has been no independent, reliable rating currency by which to measure digital and mobile advertising," SY Lau, a senior executive vice president at Tencent, said in a statement.
Digital measurement is one of the tools used by advertisers to help plan campaigns and shed light on how well an ad does. It is a major factor in determining the cost of an ad.