Internet advertising is making a comeback from last year’s outright recession. According to new estimates from IDC analyst Karsten Weide, Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. grew 15 percent in the second quarter to $7.2 billion. This is the third rising quarter of year-over-year growth (10.5 percent growth in the first quarter and 2.2 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2009), after three consecutive down quarters.
The second quarter matches last year’s fourth quarter (which is generally the strongest in the year for advertising), and was slightly above last quarter’s $7.0 billion, meaning the last three quarters have been flat sequentially, but growing on an annual basis.
IDC expects growth to slow slightly in the current third quarter to 14.4 percent, and then pick up to 16.4 percent in the fourth quarter, bringing the total for the year to $30.1 billion, up from $26.3 billion last year.
And IDC’s estimates concur with my earlier post that the growth in online video advertising is accelerating. IDC estimates that online video advertising revenues grew 114 percent in the second quarter to $476 million, compared to 94 percent annual growth in the first quarter and 48 percent growth in the fourth quarter of last year.
