If you are in the business of Internet advertising, the news is good and the forecast looks even better for 2010. By most estimates, Internet ad spend will be see a good positive growth and will see a greater share of the overall advertising spend.

Also, in UK for the first time ever, Internet advertising spend has risen above that of television (television advertising dropped 17% to 21.9%) and now represents 23.5% of all advertising spend in the UK. This is the first major market to see the Internet toppling television advertising, and will soon set the precedence for other markets hopefully.

Overall globally, spending on Internet advertising during H1 of 2009 compared to the same period of 2008 is notable.

Not surprisingly, some of this growth comes at the expense of offline advertising. According to Forrester research, who is out with their Interactive Marketing Forecast, online advertising will grow from 12% of total marketing spend this year to 21% by 2014, meaning that offline ad spend will fall.

In fact, Forrester concludes that “overall advertising budgets will decline,” meaning that there are greater efficiencies by shifting to Internet advertising.

In a separate study by GroupM, growth in display ads has fallen over the past several years. In 2010, the report predicts that display spending is expected to hold a 34% share of online advertising, down from 35 percent in 2009, 37% in 2008, 38% in 2007 and 39% in 2006. In contrast, spend on search ads has grown from a 38% share in 2006 to an anticipated 43% in 2010.

Social media, the new kid on the block is the rising star and expects to grow at an annual rate of 34% (Forrester research) – faster than any other form of online marketing. But then the stellar growth of social media also has do with the fact that it’s starting from a smaller base.

In India, the future of Internet advertising looks optimistic. According to Digital Media Outlook 2009 (an in-depth study done by Webchutney, the interactive agency), Internet ad spends already account for 8.6% of the total ad spend amongst the top advertisers. Amongst the categories, FMCG ad spends on the Internet are expected to grow 4 times in 2009-10!

It’s heartening to see that advertisers have an increasing confidence in the medium, and it will continue to do so as the Internet begins to converge in all traditional mediums and eventually becomes the ultimate single point medium for information, communication and entertainment.