Think again, and yes, indeed: IHT has a story full of numbers, on how UK is leading U.S. in online advertising, as well as of course broadband adoption. Online advertising is growing at a roughly 40 percent annual rate in Britain, and it is expected to account for as much as 14 percent of overall advertising spending this year, according to media buying agencies. That is the highest level in the world, and more than double the U.S. percentage.
The countries work differently, of course: British media are nearly all aimed nationwide, in contrast to the U.S. newspaper and TV markets, where local and regional markets are big players, and slow to move online.
Another factor: Ad buyers at major U.S. brands may be reluctant to commit larger sums to the Internet because they believe they do not have control over where their ads appear, analysts say. Many online ads in U.S. are still sold through online networks that place ads on member sites. In Britain, more advertisers work directly with Web publishers, giving them greater say in where and when ads appear.
Also, this number is big: British financial services companies have been particularly aggressive online spenders, in some cases allocating 30 percent or even 40 percent of their advertising budgets to the Internet. And this figure is interesting: About 3.9 percent of visits to British online retailers’ sites yield purchases, compared with 2.5 percent of U.S. site visits, according to Coremetrics, an e-commerce tracking service.
Even Terry Semel agrees: “The U.S. is so behind…It’s certainly lagging the U.K. by at least a year or two.”