Ad revenue on the Web increases in first half of `97

Advertisers aggressively increased their spending in cyberspace during the first half of the year.

Advertising revenue on the World Wide Web reached $217.3 million through the first six months of 1997, according to Cowles/Simba Information, a unit of Cowles Business Media.

That is more than triple the $61 million that the company reported was spent in the first six months of 1996. Electronic Advertising and Marketplace Report, the biweekly newsletter published by Cowles/Simba, reported its latest findings last week. Quarter-to-quarter growth was strong, as the on-line market grew 58.7 percent to $133.3 million in the second quarter of the year, up $84 million from the first quarter of 1997. According to the report, the industry is on pace to reach $446 million in Web advertising this year. Some of those numbers are seemingly more conservative than other reports by new-media analysts like Jupiter Communications. While Jupiter has yet to release its own numbers for the second quarter of 1997, its previous statistics have been higher than Cowles' figures. According to Jupiter, first quarter Web advertising revenue reached $110 million; Cowles/Simba reported revenues were $84 million for the same time period. Matt Kinsman, editor of Electronic Advertising and Marketplace Report, said Web publishers should be cautioned that they may experience "a summer slowdown" in advertising buys, but predicted that a slow third quarter would be "followed by a booming fourth quarter as advertisers gear up for the holiday season." The report was compiled by tracking 17 popular advertiser- supported Web sites including the search directory Yahoo, the sports site ESPN Sportszone, and Playboy magazine's Web site. According to the report, Yahoo's advertising revenue grew fourfold, to $5 million in June 1997, compared with a little more than $1 million in the like period in 1996. Collectively, the 17 Web sites the company tracked posted $74.7 million in Web ad revenue in the second quarter of the year. According to the report, search engines continue to be the dominant advertising forum, accounting for 45 percent of ad revenue among the top Web sites. Technology publishers comprised the second-largest market, with 35 percent of ad revenue, while the growing consumer/news category represented 20 percent, the report said.

Copyright 1997
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.