Web global ad spend to rocket, says report

The Web will account for nearly six per cent of all global advertising by 2005, according to online research specialist Jupiter.

Total online ad spend is expected to jump to $28bn (£18.6bn) worldwide by 2005, up from $4.3bn (£2.9bn) in 1999, positioning the Internet as “the first marketing medium to offer global reach”.

Jupiter unveiled its findings at the Global Online Advertising Forum – an event taking place in Cannes ahead of the International Advertising Festival. The researcher says the growth will be driven partly by the rise of the online population, which will more than double within the next five years, rocketing from 300 million users worldwide today to 800 million users in 2005.

But Jupiter warns that the majority of companies marketing on a global scale are ill-prepared to leverage the Internet to communicate with a worldwide audience. It says marketers face numerous challenges including a dependence on regional media-buying efforts, lack of adoption of innovative online ad models, and integration problems over both media and platforms.