Internet ad spending to reach $121 billion this year

Global ad spend is on track to grow 5.5% this year to $537 billion, while Internet advertising will account for nearly one-quarter of that, at $121 billion, according to the latest forecasts out from ZenithOptimedia, a division of ad giant Publicis. Overall it’s a generally optimistic picture: the researchers say that this is the third revision of its 2014 figures that it has made, with this latest a 0.2 percentage point increase since December, “after recent signs of stronger growth from the Americas and Asia Pacific.” And in Europe, where ad spend was down by 3% in 2013 and has dropped by 15% since 2007 and the start of the financial crisis, ZenithOptimedia now thinks it will grow by 0.7% in 2014, its first growth since 2010. As a point of comparison, in 2013 global ad spend was $503 billion, according to the same researchers.