BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China's advertisement sector generated 189.96 billion yuan (27.78 billion U.S. dollars) of revenue in 2008, up 9.11 percent over the previous year, China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) said Sunday.

    The revenue from TV commercials reached 50.15 billion yuan, an increase of 13.22 percent over the previous year. It accounted for26.4 percent of the total, the largest share of the market.

    Income from newspaper advertisements rose 6.36 percent from a year ago to 34.27 billion yuan in 2008.

    The number of foreign-funded advertisement companies in China soared 27.73 percent from the previous year to 737 by the end of 2008, which accounted for 0.4 percent of the total advertisement firms across the country, according to the SAIC.