NEW YORK - U.S. Internet advertising revenue for 2007 is expected to be $21.1 billion, a 25 percent increase over the previous record of nearly $16.9 billion for 2006, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers said Tuesday.
Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2007 totaled about $5.9 billion, making it the highest reported quarter and representing a 13 percent increase over the third quarter of 2007 and a 24 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2006. All four quarters of 2007 had record-level revenue.
"Interactive media continue their unabated growth," said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. "There is no media as measurable as interactive, and they provide products and services at the precise moment a consumer desires them. I applaud the industry on maintaining this extraordinary momentum of innovation, which has fundamentally changed the way we live today."
"The record $21.1 billion year of interactive advertising is the culmination of consecutive record quarters throughout 2007," said David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "The continued record growth evidences the importance and uniqueness of interactive media to both consumers and the marketers that are trying to reach them."
The Interactive Advertising Bureau sponsors the Internet Advertising Revenue Report, which is conducted independently by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The full report is issued twice yearly for full- and half-year data, and top-line quarterly estimates are issued for the first, third and fourth quarters. Fourth-quarter and full-year online ad revenue estimates result from surveying and aggregating data from the top 15 online ad sellers and extrapolating the information to calculate the total estimated industry revenue figure.
Actual third- and fourth-quarter results will be reported in the full 2007 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, which will be released in May. PricewaterhouseCoopers does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information.
The Kelsey Group estimated U.S. Internet advertising to be $22.5 billion for 2007.
The Kelsey Group also estimated global Internet advertising for 2007 to be $45 billion. This estimate is 7.4 percent of the $600 billion global advertising market, compared to a 6.1 percent share in 2006.
IDC made the highest estimate for U.S. Internet advertising in 2007, $25.5 billion.
