$105 billion dollars ...

Interesting article ... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/07/spending-on-onl.html

"... data indicates that companies (US) are expected to spend $105.3 billion online in 2008, which beats the $98.5 billion they’re projected to spend on TV, radio and movies. But that isn’t quite as much as the $147 billion they’re likely to spend on print media, up 12% from the previous year."

Ok, so the measurement is a little flawed.

"It counts the money companies spend on their own websites as part of their advertising budgets, because websites are ostensibly used for marketing"

I was surprised by this stat ...

"The 1,088 US-based companies surveyed will spend $61.5 billion, or 61.8% of their online advertising and marketing budgets, on their own sites, siphoning away money from other options, he said"

$61.5b on websites! It's interesting some companies are willing to bleed money on their clumsy, corporate website but don't feel comfortable enough to utilise media (be it display, search, whatever) to raise awareness of it. Maybe after forking out so much for the site there's no money left.

The research threw in website dev into the total investment cost because it's essentially a 'marketing tool' ... begs the question, how or why are many corporate sites marketing tools and what are they giving in value to the consumer?