Industry Overview

Recent Performance

The online advertising industry has experienced extremely strong growth in recent years. The Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers reported that internet advertising spending increased 34.4% from $12.5 billion in 2005 to $16.8 billion in 2006 . In addition, according to the Nielson Monitor Plus, the leading provider of competitive advertising information, spending on internet advertising increased 15.9% in the first three quarters of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006. In a period in which overall advertising spending decreased by 0.1%, growth in internet advertising led all other advertising categories, including National Magazines (7.7%), National Sunday Supplements (6.0%), Outdoor (5.7%) and National Cable TV (1.2%).

Future Outlook

Internet advertising is expected to continue growing strongly in the next three years. Major research companies Forrester Research, JupiterResearch, Oppenheimer, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Borrell Associates project internet advertising spending to reach $22 billion by 2011 in conservative scenarios and $36 billion in optimistic scenarios. Research company eMarketer predicts that internet advertising will increase to $42 billion by 2011. In addition, by 2010, US online advertising will double as a percentage of total media, rising from 6% in 2006 to more than 12% in 2010 .

eMarketer bases its