Online advertising will surpass cinema spend in 2009

“While online economics in South Africa are different to those of traditional commerce, there is little doubt that a recession in the physical world would make itself felt in the online environment, but the 2009 expectation shows how robust this sector remains,” says Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx.

The study revealed that the only mature Internet market where online advertising appears to be growing faster than South Africa is Brazil, which is expecting 45% growth for 2008, after recording the same growth rate in 2007. In the English-speaking world, where the USA, UK, Canada and Australia outpaced South Africa in 2006 and 2007, all fell below the 30% growth mark in 2008, with the USA falling as low as 11% and the UK falling to 22%. Growth for both of these is expected to be below 10% in 2009. Comparatively however this growth will still appear healthy when compared to other major media.

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clipped from www.bizcommunity.com Online advertising in South Africa grew at the fastest rate of all countries in the English-language world in 2008, and is likely to repeat this performance in 2009, according to the recent Online Media in South Africa 2009 study, conducted by World Wide Worx in collaboration with the Online Publishers Association (OPA). The findings indicate an encouraging 32% growth in online advertising in 2008, after an equally positive 27% growth in 2007. Actual online advertising spend in 2008 was up to R319-million, from R240-million the year before. The figures contrast strongly with the statistics from Nielsens but are based on actual revenue figures derived directly from publishers, and not rate card rates. However, neither Nielsen's nor the commissioned study were able to obtain data from Google, which would further increase the figure significantly. This robust growth is indicative of growing confidence in the online medium.