Online advertising spending in Britain surged 40.3% to 917.2 million pounds ($1.72 billion) in the first half of 2006 compared to last year, giving it a market share of 10.5 %, data from a trade group, cited by a Reuters report said.
The Reuters report said new data from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB UK) showed that Internet ad spending had continued to grow despite a depressed overall market.
The group also predicted online advertising would overtake spending on national press advertising before the end of 2006, the Reuters report said.
According to the study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the IAB, the Internet is the fastest-growing advertising medium in the UK, commanding a market share of 10.5% for January to June 2006, up from 7.3% for the same period in 2005, the Reuters report said.
IAB said this took online advertising to within one percentage point of the national press, which recorded an 11.4% share for the first half of 2006.