How Many is a Billion?

The Los Angeles Times reports that U.S. Internet advertising revenue has exceeded $3 billion in a single quarter for the first time. The $3.1 billion for the third quarter of 2005 was a 34 per cent jump from the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the year could exceed $12 billion, well above the $9.6-billion total last year.

“Clearly advertisers are realizing the benefits of shifting more of their total advertising budgets to online,” said David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company that crunched the numbers.

Nonetheless, online ads still represents a small portion of the total U.S. ad market, which was $71 billion during the first half of 2005, according to research firm TNS Media Intelligence.