Online Advertising – Creeping Towards Recession?
By Anna Johnson on May 11th, 2009Analysis by eMarketer indicates that while the signs aren’t pretty, online advertising has not officially entered into a recession.
Essentially, growth in net U.S. revenues at the four major search portals – Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL – collectively dropped on a quarter-over-quarter basis throughout 2008. Growth in ad revenues rose by 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter, but declined by 11.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
In year-over-year terms, growth was positive in each quarter of 2008, but dropped by 3.3 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
What this all means, according to eMarketer, is that so far the online ad market has avoided being officially in recession. If, however, revenue growth declines in the next quarter i.e. there has been two consecutive quarters of lower growth, then, yes, online advertising will be in recession.
Source: eMarketer, “No Online Ad Recession, Yet,” eMarketer, May 7, 2009
