According to the latest research by Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) on hundreds of corporations in the United States, by 2006, the share of their advertising budgets allocated to online advertising will increase from 17% to 23%. This report indicates that the Internet will dramatically rise from fourth place to first among all advertising mediums. Thus, for the first time in the United States, the Internet has become the most preferred advertising medium.
In the fourth quarter of last year, online advertising in the U.S. reached a staggering $3.7 billion. However, in 2006, this form of advertising is expected to grow by 32%.
The research results show that traditional advertising mediums, once dominant, are now yielding space to the Internet. Specifically: print newspapers will receive only 16% of advertisers’ budgets, television will also garner a similar figure, while magazine advertising will account for 15%, cable television for 10%, radio for 8%, billboards for 8%, and the remaining 4% will be allocated to other forms.
45% of the surveyed advertising agencies indicated that in the new year, they plan to increase their online advertising budget by an average of about 29%. This survey also revealed that the most popular online advertising platforms are Google, Yahoo!, and ValueClick.
According to CSFB’s global assessments, online advertising will reach $16.6 billion in 2006 and will grow to $33.8 billion by 2010. Therefore, we can expect to witness many spectacular battles between MSN, Yahoo!, and Google as they compete for this massive advertising budget.