Online advertising in the US grew 27pc to US$25.5bn in 2007, IDC has revealed.
Total US internet ad spending grew nearly 28pc to US$7.3bn in Q4 2007 over the same quarter in 2006.
Google’s net US internet advertising market share declined for the first time in two years due to slower domestic growth in Q4 2007, according to the analyst firm.
The search giant was down 0.5 percentage points to 23.7pc last quarter compared to 3Q 2007. Google’s estimated net US internet advertising sales (excluding the traffic acquisition costs they pay out to the partners in their networks) grew by just over 40pc in 4Q 2007 but its year-on-year growth rate in the quarter before had been 50pc.
“If a merger between Microsoft’s new media business and Yahoo! would come to pass, the combined entity would have a net US advertising market share of about 17pc based on our 4Q 2007 data,” said Karsten Weide, program director for IDC’s Digital Marketplace: Media and Entertainment service.
“It would not quite bring Microsoft-Yahoo! to where Google is in online advertising in the US but it would give them a much better fighting chance than if they went it alone.”
By Niall Byrne
