Red Carpet Web Promotion has gathered statistics relating to the Internet, ecommerce and online marketing to keep a realistic perspective of the market. Because these sources often offer conflicting opinions, it's important that you read the reports and draw your own conclusions. The statistics below are a good start. All statistics are from third parties, and are linked from this page for your convenience. Use your browser's "back" button to return to this page.

Headlines	Sources
Paid Search Expected to Outpace Display By 2010 clickz.com - September 20, 2005 [Paid search] accounted for 34 percent of total online ad spending in 2004, or $4.2 billion in spending. In 2009, paid search will draw even with display advertising, with both bringing in around $6.9 billion. By 2010, paid search, including paid listings and paid inclusion, is expected to equal 40 percent of the online ad spend, or $7.5 billion.
Search Engine Results Continuing to Diverge Searchenginewatch.com - August 2, 2005 A new study suggests that the overlap between search engine results is less than it was even a few months ago, and that the voices of each engine are growing even more unique. The study looked at search results from more than 12,500 random queries on Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN search and Yahoo, and found that the overlap in first page results for these four engines was a scant 1.1% on average for a given query, suggesting that each of the four major search engines has a unique voice that's not duplicated by the other services.
New Study Sizes Up the Web Clickz - June 29, 2005 It's been ages since I've seen anyone try to estimate the size of the Web. Now, a new paper puts it at 11.5 billion pages or more for January 2005.
Google Grabs 52% Of U.S. Search Share Information Week - June 28, 2005 Google's share of the U.S. search market reached an all-time high, cracking the 50% mark for the first time.
Gold Mine Found in Web Searches Reuters – April 17, 2005 Includes some nice stats comparing search to other forms of advertising, from a cost per lead perspective. Citing Piper Jaffray, is says the cost to acquire is $8.50 for search, $20 for yellow pages, $50 for online display ads, $60 for e-mail and $70 for direct mail. Cost for television leads were not covered.
Nielsen//NetRatings: Rich folks hanker for Net Online Publishers Association - Covering February 7 - February 18, 2005 The Internet experience just got a little bit richer -- and we don't mean rich media. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, the amount of Net users with incomes over $150,000 grew 20 percent in January 2005 over January 2004 to 10.3 million. Nielsen figures this group is not a fly-by-night gang, spending more time online (76 hours per month) than any other income segment.
Yahoo & MSN Closing the Google Gap SearchEngineWatch - January 13, 2005 While Big G continues to maintain its leadership position in the eyes of web searchers, a new study finds that Yahoo, MSN Search and Ask Jeeves have all made significant improvements over the past year and are narrowing Google's mindshare advantage.
Online Ads & Search: Looking Back, Looking Forward SearchEngineWatch - January 17, 2005 Paid search led the resurgence of online advertising in 2004 with a 34% increase in growth, and this trend is expected to continue over the coming five years.
Up, up, up goes online advertising Online Publishers association - December 3, 2004 "...TNS Media Intelligence/CMR announced that online ad spending rose 26 percent in the first nine months of 2004, outpacing overall ad growth of 10 percent and the growth of all other segments. Much of the boost for offline advertising came from the Olympics and political campaigns. Then AdZone reported that online ads took in $692 million in September alone, up 14 percent over the previous month."
Search Online, Buy Offline: How to Tell? SearchEngineWatch - October 27, 2004 Many people do extensive product research online but end up buying from brick and mortar retailers. How can you track the effectiveness of search marketing campaigns that result in offline purchases?
The "Real" Numbers Offer Clue to Google's Huge Lead Traffick.com – June 14, 2004 "I've always been a stats junkie. In the search marketing business, though, it hasn't been easy to get the data that matter most. You hear conflicting reports about just how strong competing search engines such as Yahoo, MSN, and Google Search are in the marketplace. For the past year I've been trying hard (in seminars, on this site, as moderator of now-dormant MarketingVox Search, etc.) to hammer home the point that Google's lead in terms of search referrals is greater than it ever was, and greater than you might think."
Local Search Now 25% of Internet Commercial Activity Yahoo - February 11, 2004 New survey conducted by The Kelsey Group and BizRate.com shows significant usage of search engines by online buyers for finding local business information. “Local commercial searches-those seeking merchants "near my home or work"-represent 25.1% of all searches being performed by online buyers, more than double the amount previously estimated by analysts.
Online ad sales hit new high ZDnet News.com - February 12, 2004 Online advertising sales hit a new high last quarter, in what could be further evidence that advertisers are turning their attention back to the Web. …The study marks the fifth consecutive quarter of gains for the online advertising sector, according to the IAB. Much of this growth has come from commercial search, which has fueled the strength of Internet giants such as Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN, while turning Google into a cash cow. Google and Yahoo's Overture Services subsidiary are industry leaders in selling advertising placement on Web search results pages.
Paid Search Still Strong; Banners and E-Mail Beefing Up Clickz.com - February 19, 2004 Paid search's wild ride isn't over, according to a Jupiter Research report predicting that the sector will drive growth of online advertising to $14.8 billion by 2008, helped along by banner ads and e-mail marketing. While paid search is justly attracting a great deal of industry attention, display ads, including rich media, will begin to recover this year, the report predicted. This is because 46 million U.S. households will have broadband by 2008, fully one-half those online, according to Jupiter. As broadband usage grows, an increased investment in rich media ads will drive display ad spending.
Shoppers Ring Up $8.5B in November 2003 Internet News - December 10, 2003 Shoppers got busy during November 2003 by spending 55 percent more online than they did in the same period last year. Among the most popular items consumers spent their $8.5 billion were videos and DVDs, books, music, and toys and video games (hardware and software).
META Group Predicts Commercial Search Market to Reach $5 Billion Over Next Two Years STAMFORD, Conn.-October 2003 "Because of the potential revenue from an expanding market, META Group predicts AOL and MSN will either acquire commercial search services, including contextual advertising services, or release their own proprietary systems by 2005. This would result in the commercial Internet search and contextual advertising market being dominated exclusively by Yahoo, Google, AOL, and MSN by 2006."
More Money = More Surfing Cyberatlas – October 2003 The digital divide has not disappeared, as research reveals a correlation between household income and Internet usage, with high earners spending the most time online.
Share of Searches SearchEngineWatch, August 2003 Share of searches on Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Ask and others is determined by monitoring the web activities of 1.5 million English-speakers worldwide.
Search Guiding More Web Activity Internet News, March 2003 "Search engines generated 13.4 percent of site referrals on the day measured, up from 7.1 percent measured a year earlier. Direct navigation also rose in the StatMarket sample, growing to 65.5 percent versus 50.1 percent a year earlier. Web links, on the other hand, fell from 42.6 percent to 21 percent."
Ecommerce sales on the up in US Nua, February 2003 Online retail sales in the US surpassed USD45 billion in 2002, reports E-commerce Times.
Online spending reaches new high in US Nua, January 2003 "Online spending rose more than 24 percent year-over-year, up from USD11 billion in 2001. Including travel, online spending grew nearly 22 percent to USD15.7 billion."
Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL Account For More Than 90 Percent of Search Referrals to Shopping Web Sites WebSideStory, December 2002 "Google was first with a referral percentage of 27.16 percent to shopping Web sites, followed by Yahoo (25.92), MSN (24.11) and AOL NetFind (15.60)."
Pew Study Finds Web's Reach Expanding InternetNews, December 2002 "60 percent of Americans now have Internet access, and 40 percent have been using the Web for more than three years. …The study says most Internet users find healthcare, government, news and shopping information to be the most reliable, and useful to them. In many cases, folks would rather go on the Web to find some information, rather than navigating a government or healthcare company phone system."
Search Engine Usage Ranks High InternetNews, November 2002 "Top billing is essential and paying for high search engine rankings may be a good investment, some research finds. A report from iProspect reveals that more than half (56.6 percent) of Internet users abandon their searches after the first two pages, and with more than three-quarters of Internet users relying on search engines, the first page could be critical."
How searchers search Nua, November 2002 "- 16 percent of searchers only look at a few search result listings - 32 percent read the whole search results page - 23 percent go to the second page - 56.6 percent of abandon their searches after the first two pages - 52.1 percent usually stick to the same search engine or directory"
More spending online during holiday season Nua, September 2002 E-marketer reports that consumer online purchases in the U.S. are expected to rise by 27 percent during the 2002 holiday season.
Statistics Canada: Ecommerce activity in Canada on the rise Nua, September 2002 "New research from Statistics Canada indicates that 2.2 million Canadian households spent close to CAD2 billion(USD1.27 billion) on online shopping in 2001."
Global Internet audience increases Nua, August 2002 "Almost ten percent of the world's population now has access to the Internet, according to newly released figures from Nua.com."
Online shoppers getting older NUA, March 2002 DMNews reports that the age of online shoppers in the US is rising, while the average household income is falling.
Q4 online sales topped USD10 billion NUA, February 2002 CyberAtlas reports that US online retail sales amounted to USD10.04 billion during Q4 2001.
U.S. Internet Population Continues to Grow InternetNews, February 2002 "Internet use in the United States is growing at a rate of 2 million new Internet users each month."
Weather influences online shopping NUA, January 2002 Women and residents of colder states were the most likely of all US consumers to shop online during the holiday season, according to BizRate.com.
Holiday season online sales up NUA, January 2002 Reuters reports that online sales during the 2001 holiday season may have been as much as 15 percent higher than in the previous year.
Consumers indifferent to rich media Jupiter Media Metrix: September 2001 US consumers prefer websites that are customizable and load quickly.
Online advertising not dead yet TechWeb: August 2001 TechWeb reports that spending on online advertising will grow at a compound rate of 22 percent over the next five years.
Online sales to grow by 57 percent in 2001 E-Commerce Times: January 2001 Although growth in ecommerce will slow down in 2001, analysts expect online sales to grow.
Companies fork out cash for online marketing DMA: December 2000 A total of USD2.8 billion was spent by US companies on online marketing in 2000.
Almost half of US web users shop online Scarborough Research: December 2000 According to the latest figures from Scarborough Research, 47 percent of America's online population shops online.
Ecommerce sites still popular with web users NielsenNetRatings: September 2000 The release of the July global Internet index from Nielsen/NetRatings has revealed that online shopping sites are still popular with web users, despite widespread investor concerns about the viability of ecommerce.
US firms invest heavily in Internet strategy Cahners In-Stat Group: September 2000 US companies are now serious about using the Web as a business tool, with firms investing as much as 20 percent of their total IT expenditure on Internet-enabling services, personnel, and solutions.
Internet is big business in Canada Statistics Canada: August 2000 Canadian businesses are reaping the rewards of ecommerce.