• August 2, 2004

Veronis Suhler Stevenson reports that total consumer Internet spending increased 16.1 percent to $30.7 billion in 2003, driven primarily by a rebound in online ad spending. The investment bank's communications forecast, released on Monday, found that online ad spending jumped 20.2 percent to $7.3 billion in 2003, due to increasing use of keyword search advertising, which more than offset declines in banner ads and other forms of graphical image advertising.

Veronis projects that overall spending in the consumer Internet market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 11.4 percent from 2003 to 2008, reaching $52.7 billion by 2008, spurred by economic expansion, growth in the number of broadband households, and consumers' willingness to pay for online content.

Veronis also reported that total communications spending increased 4.6 percent to $648.3 billion in 2003, representing the fastest growth since 2000. This was driven in large part by gains in consumer spending on media such as cable and satellite television, home video, the Internet, and satellite radio.