Remember when Internet Advertising Was Called a Hoax?

I do. It was the aftermath of the dot com boom. Many big forecasts were made by start ups. After the dust settled, analysts unilaterally stated that growth prospects for internet advertising were grossly overstated, and there’s no way it could eclipse print. That was, until a little company named Google decided to change the game. Money quote:

U.S. online advertising nearly doubling from $21.4 billion in 2007 to $42 billion in 2011, representing about 13 percent of the total ad-spend

Whenever a bubble bursts, its almost as cool to discount any growth projects made during the expansion of the bubble, then it is to make wild projects during the bubble. Personally, I was puzzled at why analysts were now criticising the internet as a medium for advertising. An extremely high growth medium, large interactive information display possibilities, and advertisers have total control over what niche they’d like to view their ads, unlike most mass media advertising. That sounds like a pretty juicy opportunity to me, even if it went through a period of over-valuation. Once again, the fear of being wrong twice in a row leads people to switch bets. Not that Google’s complaining.