The Online Advertising Industry: Economics, Evolution, and Privacy

摘要

Advertising delivered over the Internet-"online advertising"-has become a significant source of revenue for web-based businesses. Fifty-six of the top 100 websites based on page views in February 2008 presented advertising; these 56 accounted for 86 percent of the total page views for these 100 sites. Twenty-six of these 56 sites, accounting for 77 percent of all page views for the top 100 sites, likely earn most of their revenue from selling advertising.1 Advertising is a significant source of revenue for many smaller websites. Online advertising is also central to the $34 billion-and rising-e-commerce economy (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2008). Web-based sellers use online advertising to drive consumers directly to their sites where they can browse for goods and services and purchase them with a few clicks. Online advertising accounted for 8.8 percent of all advertising in the United States in 2008 (Hallerman, 2008), and that share is expected to grow over time.