Guess eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman isn’t a modern-day Nostradamus after all. After predicting last year that US internet ad spend would increase to $25.7 billion in ’09 with an 8.9% growth rate, then saying earlier this year that the tally was closer to $24.5 billion, eMarketer has once again revised its numbers.
The industry research trade now actually predicts a 2.9% drop to $22.8 billion due to factors including the IAB/PricewaterhouseCoopers first-half 2009 results, Google’s earnings and the leading 100 US advertisers survey published by AdAge. Emarketer does figure though that moderate growth will once again take effect in 2010 and 2011.
Hallerman explains in a statement, “When you consider that the size of the online market means moderate growth rates now represent substantial additional dollars, this lesser growth–as compared with the 2003 to 2007 period–is to be expected.”