British firms set to pour more into online advertising

AFP, November, 2006

LONDON (AFP) — British firms are planning to invest more in online advertising as households increasingly use the Internet for routine purchases, a new survey said. Online spending on marketing will rise by 50 percent from 2.2 billion pounds this year to 3.3 billion pounds (4.9 billion euros) in 2009, said the survey by the Internet search group Google and Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

The firms surveyed are likely to spend nearly 13 billion pounds in three years in Internet-based technology, up from the current level of about 10 billion pounds a year. "Six years after the dot.com bubble burst, the Internet is driving really substantial change among businesses," Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI, said in a statement. "Firms are learning more about...