News

Internet advertising shows signs of rebound

May 4, 2003

NEW YORK -- Online analysts pointed to a handful of positive earnings announcements and an advertising survey as signs that the Internet advertising market is returning to health, according to an article in The New York Times.

Better-than-expected quarterly financial results posted in April by online media companies like Yahoo, CNet, CBS MarketWatch and others supported the trend, the article said.

Yahoo's first-quarter advertising sales increased 38 percent from the period a year earlier, to $190 million. And Nielsen NetRatings, an online research firm, found that across the industry, advertisers ran 221 billion advertisements in the first quarter, up from 168 billion a year earlier.

Retailers and financial-services providers increased their shares of ad dollars. But maybe more significant is that the number of advertisements by consumer goods manufacturers jumped to 17 billion in the first quarter, a nearly sevenfold increase from the same period last year, according to the article.

A survey from the Interactive Advertising Bureau suggests that the recovery is slow and that only the largest Web sites are enjoying the early benefits. But some say the pieces are in place for publishers to attract more cash from well-known advertisers, the article said.

The bureau, an online trade group, said advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2002 increased 2 percent from the third quarter.

As more people use high-speed Internet connections, marketers are able to use motion and sound to enhance advertisements. Counting workplace use, 53 percent of all computers connected to the Internet in the United States now have broadband access, the article said.