Internet advertisers in the UK spent a total of £1.7 billion during the first six months of 2008, increasing the online market share to 19 per cent, it has been announced.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) explains that its research, which was carried out in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Advertising Research Centre, shows “overwhelming” confidence in the medium.

It notes this is particularly worthy of note when taking into consideration the fact that press, television, radio and outdoor advertising have all seen falls in expenditure.

“The total advertising market was £8,982.5 million, down 0.7 per cent year-on-year, during the period January to June 2008. The advertising market would have experienced a 4.6 per cent decline without the internet’s growth,” the IAB says.

Key drivers for growth are identified as the rise in popularity of 3G, wireless and cheap laptops.

In other news, sector commentator Robin Goad recently wrote on web resource Hitwise that the current economic situation has resulted in a surge in UK internet traffic to financial institutions’ websites.

Tags: advertising research, cheap laptops, internet advertisers, internet traffic, web advertising, web resource