Focus Media (China) Holding Ltd, an agency broadcasting commercials in elevators and in office lobbies, received a US$12.5 million injection from various investors during the weekend.

　　The investment came from venture capital investors, including United Capital Investment Group (China) Ltd, Draper Fisher Jurvetson ePlanet Ventures and Venture TDF China LLC.

　　The company will make its debut on Nasdaq early next year and it expects to net US$200 million from its initial public offering, said Jiang Nanchun, the general manager of Shanghai-based Focus Media.

　　"To be listed on Nasdaq can help us to establish a global presence as our business will expand to Singapore and other places in the near future," Jiang added.

　　Mao Xianghui, UCI's vice president, said:"We believe the investment will bring us a return as high as 30 percent, banking on Focus Media's fast expansion. As an emerging platform for advertising, Focus Media has dominated the market and still has huge potential."

　　One-and-a-half years ago, Focus Media's foothold was only in Beijing where it installed liquid crystal displays in several office buildings. But now, it has a presence in more than 6,000 buildings in 30 cities and expects to enter 10,000 buildings by the end of this year.

　　Rapid expansion brought Focus Media an increase in audiences, and finally, more buyers. Commercials from firms in the automobile, real estate, IT, financial services and fast moving consumer goods industries have dominated the broadcasts by Focus Media. The firm expects to hit sales of 300 million yuan (US$36.14 million) this year.

　　"We used to define our target audience to be white collar people who have a relatively high income. But now we want to expand our network and target a larger group of people," Jiang said.

　　It plans to enter airports, hospitals and beauty salons.

　　"We will segment the market and launch different commercials in different places," Jiang said.