VARCA: Internet ads, currently sized at Rs 10 billion, is estimated to grow at 50 per cent in 2011.

The size of Internet advertising can scale up to $1 billion by 2014, said Google India vice president of India sales and operations Rajan Anandan at Goafest 2011. This, however, will continue to be miniscule compared to the total advertising spend of Rs 250 billion in the country.
 
At the end of 2010, there were over 100 million Internet users in India. And on an average, Anandan said, Indians spend 16 hours a week on the Internet—40 million access it from their homes, and nearly 30 million each from cyber cafés and workplace.

According to Anandan, display advertisement on the Internet will dominate the future, “Display advertisement will provide precise
measurement for advertisers across the Google display network including YouTube,” he said. 
 
Anandan mentioned that advances in computing horsepower are making advertisers smarter and data analysis easier—and rich media content is making ads more attractive, “In the last four months, the content uploaded on YouTube is more than the content created by the US’ four largest broadcasters since 1948. YouTube has become the largest English channel in the country, with most of its subscribers being young," he said.

Recalling the release of Dabangg, Anandan said: “The first sponsored movie ever to be released on YouTube received 1 million visitors in the first week alone.” Anandan also cited the example of an ad for IPL T20 by Airtel and YouTube, “The ad received 450000 visitors in the first week.”

Touching upon rich media, Anandan mentioned that mobile is the number one screen. He asserted that the number of mobile Internet users will reach 40 million by 2014 worldwide. Mobile Internet is just waiting to explode, he added.

Anandan claimed that display advertising-enabled advance buying will increase the nubers by 30 per cent and reduce costs by 70 per cent. “Audience buying through display ads is a mega-trend,” he said.