Online ad spending is a $24B industry. It’s predicted to grow by 75% over the next 5 years. It’s no wonder with the shift in media to the Web. But is this business recession proof? I think not. Any industry is impacted especially when consumers dramatically slow spending. The trickle effect is felt from retail, through to supply chains around the world including the distributors, manufacturers and of course the labor markets. However, consumers may spend online at a lower rate, but that doesn’t mean they won’t spend more time searching online for the best deals.
If you’re interested in understanding more about this business, I suggest the eMarketer web site. They just released some information on 2009 online advertising predictions which is my source for the above mentioned numbers.
I’m always curious in the breakdown of how advertising money is being spent. This particular report categorizes spending into 8 spending segments: search, display ads, video, rich media, classifieds, lead generation, sponsorships and emails. The largest is display ads, but the fastest growing, you guessed it, is video.
No doubt 2008 will probably be remembered as the year of mainstream Web video. How many sites have you been to now where a video feed or downloadable content is readily available? This has been aided not only by technology advances in broadband speeds, but also by business licensing pacts that enable the shift of Television shows, movies and videos and other content to the Web.
[Source: eMarketer “eMarketer’s Predictions for 2009”]