First-half online ad spending
sets a record
Surges 11 percent over last year to $12.1 billion
By Diego Vasquez
Oct 13, 2010
After suffering one down year during the recession, internet advertising is on pace for its best year ever.
Ad revenue surged to a record $6.2 billion during second quarter, up 14 percent over last year, and first-half spending hit $12.1 billion, 11 percent better than first-half 2009, according to data released yesterday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The largest advertisers are once again driving that spending, with the top 10 brands accounting for 70 percent of all first-half spending, which was also an all-time best.
Search continues to make up nearly half of online ad spending, 47 percent. But the fastest-growing subcategory was digital video ads, up 31 percent to a record-high $627 million.
That’s just a fraction of the $4.36 billion spent on all display-related advertising, but it’s an area with serious growth potential. Online video viewing is rising quickly.
During September, 175 million U.S. web users watched online video for an average of 14.4 hours per month, according to the latest report from comScore. That equaled more than 5.2 billion viewing sessions during the month.
Demand for just about every form of online advertising is picking up. Report after report suggests that people are choosing the medium over TV, radio and other traditional media, meaning more and more advertisers will want to connect with potential clients online.
A new study released this week by Digital Life, for instance, found that 61 percent of people worldwide use the internet daily, compared to 54 percent for TV, 36 percent for radio and 32 percent for newspapers.
|
|
|
