Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest maker of smartphones, spent some 2.8 trillion won ($2.59 billion) on advertisements in 2012, data showed Monday, the largest among local businesses.

The South Korean tech giant's spending accounts for some 14.41 percent of the combined 19.2 trillion won spent by 482,574 registered companies in the country, the data by market researcher Chaebul.com showed.

The latest figure also marked a near two-fold increase from 1.49 trillion won in 2011. Samsung is estimated to have spent some 690 billion won through September on advertisements in 2013.

LG Electronics Inc. came in second on the list with 594.1 billion won, far below its bigger rival, to account for 3.1 percent of the combined amount.

Hyundai Motor Co., the country's No. 1 automaker, spent 369.9 billion won, with its smaller affiliate Kia Motor Corp. spending 158 billion won over the cited period. Renault Samsung Motors Co. spent 90.3 billion won.

Among mobile carriers, LG Uplus Corp., the smallest player, spent 262 billion won, followed by the biggest SK Telecom Co. with 209.8 billion won and KT Corp. with 136.7 billion won.

NAVER Corp., the country's top Internet portal operator, spent 50.3 billion won, the data showed. (Yonhap News)