Online and Ad spend nears $5 billion mark in January-March 2007

Mumbai: Online advertising revenues continued to increase in January-March 2007, nearing the $5 billion mark, according to a report prepared by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Internet advertising revenues reached a record $4.9 billion in the first three months of 2007, up 26 per cent from $3.8 billion in the same quarter of the previous year, and 2 per cent higher than $4.8 billion in the previous quarter.

The annual report for 2006 also shows combined revenues approaching $17 billion.

Interactive advertising in Europe has reached $10.8 billion (€8 billion) in 2006, with the UK taking up the lion's share at 39 per cent of online advertising spending, followed by a distant 22 per cent in Germany, and 15 per cent for France, a separate survey by the IAB's European division and PwC found.

The majority of advertising spending — about 45 per cent — related to online search, according to the study, while 31 per cent went to display advertising, 22 per cent to classifieds and 1.6 per cent on e-mail marketing.

The IAB conducts the study while PricewaterhouseCoopers collects survey information on online advertising revenues from websites, commercial online services, free e-mail providers, and others selling online advertising.