Although computers and software continued to be the top spenders in Internet advertising with $461.8 million last year, their share of total Web advertising dropped from 50.5% in 1997 to 44.7% last year, according to a report from InterMedia Advertising Solutions.
Overall Web spending soared to $1.03 billion in 1998, an overall 89.8% increase over 1997.
The most dramatic spending growth came from medicines (up 386.5%), government and organizations (up 328.7%), retail (up 235.6%), direct response companies (up 214.5%), public transportation, hotels and resorts (up 135%) and financial (up 128.5%). In contrast, the increase in computers and software was only 63.6%.
Other gains in the share of the total dollars spent on the Web were seen in the financial industry at 8.9% (up from 7.7%), direct response companies at 7.2% (up from 3.8%) and retail at 3.5% (up from 3%).
