CMRi estimates that Internet ad spending for the first half of 2001 totaled $1.5 billion. Yahoo continued to drive overall Web site revenues with a total of $197.3 million in the first half of 2001, compared to $194 million for the same timeframe in 2000 ¡ an increase of approximately 1.69 percent.

Among all parent companies, General Motors led Internet spending with $25.4 million for the first half of 2001. Closely matching GMs expenditure and aggressive push in advertising is Ebay Inc. with $24.4 million. Also topping the list of advertisers are Internet parent companies Amazon.com Inc. and Classmates Online Inc., spending $16.2 million and $15.1 million respectively.

"Although we saw a gradual increase for online spending in the last quarter of 2000, the economic environment did not exclude this medium from the drastic hit we've seen across the entire marketplace throughout the course of 2001," said David Peeler, president and CEO of CMR. "As budget planning for 2002 gets under way, companies still recovering from their losses will be reluctant to channel their dollars towards major ad campaigns. With this mindset, we do not expect a jump-start in spending to kick in by first quarter 2002, as many have hoped."

Top Online Revenue by Web Site

Top Online Ad Spending by Company

Top Online Ad Spending by Brands

Top Online Ad Spending by Industry Class

About CMR
TNS Media Intelligence/CMR, offers strategic advertising intelligence to advertising agencies, advertisers, broadcasters and publishers. The company's tracking technologies collect occurrence and expenditure data, as well as the creative executions of over 900,000 brands across 15 media. CMR is headquartered in New York City and maintains sales locations in major markets throughout the United States. For further information, visit http://www.cmr.com.

Through its network of offices in more than 50 countries, Taylor Nelson Sofres provides marketing information services to leading national and multi-national companies operating in over 80 countries. It is ranked as the fourth largest marketing information group in the world. Further information on Taylor Nelson Sofres is available from the corporate Web site: http://www.tnsofres.com.

¹ Figures are based on CMRi's AdNetTrackUS Internet advertising expenditure database.
EDITOR'S NOTE: First Half 2001 Advertising Spending By Industry Category available upon request.