Domestic Internet advertising is projected to grow 100 per cent between 1999 and 2000 according to a recent study by the Centre for Media Studies.

"From Rs 50 crore in 1999, advertising on the Internet is expected to go up to Rs 100 crore in 2000 and increase further to Rs 1.000 crore in the next five years." says a CMS study on the ‘Changing scope and the character of the advertising industry’. It pointed out that the growth will depend on the popularity of Net-shopping, e-commerce, e-governance and availability of Indian languages on the Web. "The study was undertaken to assess the influence of new media on the total ad spend," Bhaskara Rao, chairman CMS told The Times of India.

He said the figures were arrived on the basis of monitoring of the ad industry by Marketing & Development Research Associates (MRDA) as well as the industry growth and revenue earning projections of mass media companies. Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia has projected Internet advertising revenue in India to be Rs 450 crore by 2004. The overall ad spend in India is estimated by CMS to increase from Rs 9,000 crore in 2000 to Rs 30,000 crore in 2010. It projected total domestic ad spend at Rs 17,000 crore by 2005.

While the traditional media like press, radio, cinema and outdoor is set to slow down in its ad outlay share over a period of time, projections for the online advertising is on the rise. The CMS study predicts that the online ad revenue "currently monopolised by 10 Internet operators" is likely to go up to 100 in 2001. "Internet advertising will receive boost much faster in the coming years with it becoming cheaper, easier and quicker."

Industry analysts said that that the current Internet base in India is about three million users which is predicted to go up to nine million by 2003.