The innovative Chinese digital advertising market is the second largest in the world after the U.S.

China has a notorious reputation as a hub for counterfeits, but that's far from the case in its digital media scene, where a unique ecosystem has nurtured innovation.

Tencent's Wechat, for example, is a significant evolution from a pure phone chat app, and it has become an all-in-one product that combines a Facebook-like social platform with mobile payment and other functions.

Aldo Fumagalli, chairman of the Candy Hoover Group, pointed to Wechat as representative of a of "digital craftsmanship" in which China is excelling.

Fumagalli was speaking at March's Boao Forum for Asia, where a key focus was technology, its evolution and its regulation in China. Asia's largest economy boasts the world's highest mobile transaction volumes.

According to data from iResearch Global, over 10 trillion Chinese yuan ($1.45 trillion) changed hands over mobile payment platforms in 2015. This amount would more than double to 22 trillion yuan ($3.2 trillion) for 2017, the house projected.

"Mobile payment has permeated all aspects of life and changed basic, everyday habits," Ogilvy & Mather and Ipsos said in a report on the Chinese mobile payment market last year, noting that even traditional cash gift-giving has gone digital.