Internet advertising sales totaled $2.5 billion during 2001, a 14.7% drop from 2000.
Ebay Inc., which spent $45.1 million during the year, was the top buyer, replacing General Motors Corp., which shelled out $43.3 million. Providian Corp., which paid $29.3 million, was third, followed by Amazon.com ($27.5 million); Barnes & Noble Inc., ($26.2 million); Bank One Corp., ($25.7 million); AOL Time Warner ($25.6 million); Classmates Online ($24.6 million); Vivendi Universal ($21.4 million) and Dell Computer ($21.1 million).
The spending figures were collected by CRMi, the online marketing division of CMR, a strategic advertising and marketing communications information firm based in New York.
Ranked by industry, retailers spent the most, laying out $533.3 million, followed by media and advertising ($450.5 million) and financial marketers ($327.3 million).
Other high-spending industries included computers and software ($251.1 million); local services and amusements ($238.4 million); public transportation, hotels and resorts ($126.3 million); automotive ($107.5 million); government and organizations ($89.7 million); telecommunications ($79.2 million) and insurance and real estate ($67.2 million).
Yahoo! maintained its position as the top Web site in terms of generating dollars, raking in $344 million during 2001. It was followed by AOL, at $320 million. Excite.com was a distant third, bringing in $126.8 million.
Rounding out the top 10 were Lycos ($111.1 million); Netscape ($108 million); Altavista ($77.6 million); Webcrawler ($57.5 million); ESPN.com ($44.1 million); MSN ($33.6 million) and Weather.com ($31.8 million).
“With the year 2002 already showing some signs of improvement, we’re expecting to see an upswing in spending by third quarter,” said David Peeler, president and CEO of CMR, in a statement.
“In fact, CMR estimates that Internet spending will lead the way in 2002, in terms of significant growth, up 8.8% from its 2001 total,” Peeler continued. “With subtle signs of recovery on the horizon, the industry awaits the economy’s stabilization, and then we’re hopeful to see advertising revenues reach more positive levels.”
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