Spending on advertising by information technology firms soared last year, driven by telecom firms and smartphone makers, a report showed on Sunday.

The country’s tech firms spent a combined 607 billion won ($571 million) on advertisements last year, up 14.4 percent from 531 billion won a year earlier, according to the report by AC Nielsen.

Samsung and its rivals such as Apple and LG Electronics spent a combined 166 billion won on smartphone advertisements last year, rising 14.2 percent from a year earlier.

They each released their own new smartphones last year, such as the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 by Samsung and Optimus G Pro by LG, in a bid to expand their presence amid heated competition.

The advert spending by the country’s three mobile operators ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus. ― reached 180 billion won last year, up 27.5 percent from a year earlier, the report showed.

In contrast, local financial firms, the biggest spender on advertisement, trimmed their spending last year, with their combined advert spending down 14.7 percent to reach 551 billion won. (Yonhap News)