France emerging as one of Europe's leading online advertisers

Despite the slow adoption of online marketing and advertising by French businesses, a new report finds that France is now emerging as one of the leading Internet advertisers in Europe.

by Helen Leggatt

Big businesses in France are beginning to experiment with new online marketing and advertising techniques, such as mobile advertising and blogs, according to a new report from eMarketer.

The report, titled “France Online Advertising” found that France is now the third-largest online advertising market in Europe, behind Britain and Germany. It estimates a 34 percent growth in 2007 and that the French online advertising market will be worth over $4 billion in four years time.

In a 2007 report by the IAB, France placed fourth in terms of online ad spending as a percentage of overall media spend with 9.5 percent, half a percent above Germany.

"In France, as in other relatively mature media markets, remarkable growth in online ad spending is boosting advertising as a whole, though Internet investment is cannibalizing other media, such as print," says Karin von Abrams, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the report.

eMarketer’s report also discovered that France was one of just two countries that expected their online ad budgets to rise during 2008, the other being the Netherlands.