Reading the Tea Leaves The Buttonwood column in The Economist has some interesting takes on the current interest in internet stocks again. The column puts forward data from both the bull and bear point of view regarding internet stocks: Interesting take-outs:
- Forrester Research figures quoted:
- That in the US people spend about 35% of their media time online but that this attracts on 6% of advertising spending
- Internet advertising in the US was worth about 12 billion USD in 2004, it is likely to grow by 25% in 2005 and tail off to single digit growth by 2010
Research quoted from the bear side of things indicated that:
- People are less likely to give out their details online. Of the 30% who used online banking, many were now using it less and 14% had stopped using it for paying bills (GartnerGroup)
- 18% of Internet users had stopped shopping online due to the fear of internet fraud (Financial Insights)
- Even online dating is down in the US (Jupiter Research)
