EMarketer: Internet ad growth to be slower than predicted

Internet ad expenditure will be slower in the US than expected, EMarketer Inc has said. Bloomberg reported that EMarketer is to lower its forecast for 2008 by "a few percentage points". The research company had initially predicted 23 per cent growth this year and 16 per cent in 2009. But senior analyst David Hallerman said the latter estimate is "also probably too high", according to Bloomberg. Mr Hallerman reduced his online marketing trends forecast in March from $27.5 billion (£14.7 billion) to $25.9 billion (£13.8 billion), giving the slowing economy as the reason. But he said ad spending would continue to be strong with money being taken from the internet to print and television. EMarketer's latest online ad spending update predicts that US advertisers will spend $24.9 billion (£13.3 billion) online this year. Despite being a lowered estimate, it still means an increase of 17.4 per cent than in 2007. Mr Hallerman said that despite a "misfiring economy and consumers' changing media habits", internet ad spending "will continue to grow rapidly".