Online advertising was up for the fourth quarter in a row, with the third quarter showing 20 percent growth compared to the same period last year. Sales from online advertising hit an estimated $1.75bn (£1bn) in the third quarter, the fourth consecutive period of gains for the industry, according to new research.
Third-quarter sales represent a 20 percent leap from revenue of $1.45bn in the same period a year ago, and a 5 percent lift from sales of $1.66bn in the previous three months, according to the trade group Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), which sponsored the research, and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which conducted it. The quarterly total was also the highest in two years, since the third quarter of 2003 when the dot-com bubble started to deflate. Online advertising peaked in 2000 with $8bn in revenue before falling to $7.1bn in 2001, and $6bn in 2002, according to IAB's numbers.
Sales for the first nine months of 2003 were an estimated $5.04bn, up about 13 percent from the comparable period a year ago. IAB chief executive Greg Stuart said the growth speaks for itself. "Clearly, the Internet is proving itself a fertile marketplace, attracting advertisers and marketers across the board," Stuart said in a statement.
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News source: ZDNet UK
