Europe's Online Advertising Up, But Still Lags Behind US Growth

eMarketer Internet ad spending in the five largest nations in Western Europe — France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK (the EU-5) — reached €1.9 billion (approx. $2.2 billion) in 2005, a healthy 38% increase over 2004's spending,.

While considerable, that figure clearly lags behind eMarketer's $12.9 billion estimate of 2005 US online advertising spending. Especially when you consider that those five nations have 131.5 million Internet users (or 77% of the corresponding US figure). That number will increase to 174.6 million EU-5 Internet users by 2008. While the European Internet ad market may not be the same as in the US, it's much like an echo—a similar sound but a few beats behind. That means spending still has far to go before catching up with the more avid audience, and traditional advertisers are still putting more money in old-time media (notably print) where audiences spend less and less time. In all 17 Western Europe nations, Internet ad spending in 2005 increased to €2.7 billion (approx. $3.2 billion). That's about a quarter of all US online advertising spending .

But longstanding country-by-country differences in Western Europe may point to growth in one area, and the opposite elsewhere. In 2006, there will be 154.1 million Internet users in the five largest Western European nations, with the largest group coming from Germany. But Spain, with the fewest people going online among the EU-5 countries, will likely see the highest growth this year. More than 50% of the total population goes online in only the UK and Germany. By next year, though, France and Italy will also pass that critical mass mark.

Europe Online Advertising report. Publ 20060126