Internet to become second-largest ad medium by 2013

For the first time ever, ZenithOptimedia's adspend forecast shows the Internet will overtake newspapers to become the world's second-largest ad medium by 2013.

by Helen Leggatt

While newspaper adspend is falling by 1.4% a year, thanks to more and more readers switching to digital, expenditure on Internet advertising is forecast to skyrocket. ZenithOptimedia's forecasts show growth of 14.4% between 2010 and 2013.

Within the next couple of years ZenithOptimedia forecasts the Internet will overtake newspapers to become the world's second-largest advertising medium after television.

"While we have long expected this to happen in the near future, this is the first time this event has fallen within our forecast period," says the report.

Display advertising, including video and social media ads, is now the driving force behind growth in the online sector, surpassing search ads, according to ZenithOptimedia.

Display advertising is expected to grow by 16.4% annually to 2013, while paid search will grow by 12.8%.

ZenithOptimedia has also revised its forecast for global ad expenditure for this year down to 4.2% from 4.6%. This, they say, is as a result of political unrest in the Middle East and the devastating earthquake in Japan which, they estimate, together wiped about $2.4bn off this year's global ad expenditure.

Tags: advertising, display advertising, Internet, print advertising, television