eMarketer speaks to me

One of the best email lists I ever signed up for was eMarketer.
Take a look at this graphic.
Admittedly, these figures are from the US, and the Australian market would have slightly different numbers. The saying here is: "Australia is about 10 years behind the US." - It serves as a self-fulfilling prophecy especially for smaller companies.
These numbers are probably pretty accurate for larger businesses in Australia; and close for small- to medium-sized companies. Smaller companies have put less of this information to use in Australia. From what I have seen here, that may change soon and quickly.

An effective adjustment to the numbers could be made by adjusting the numbers using statistics about Australia from the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics). Australia has slightly fewer college graduates and a larger number of people between 35 and 64. The most active economic group in Australia is defined as the 15-34 age group, for both online and conventional sales, for example.
From intuition, for example, I would say the Australian public would trust a Non-Profit organization or Healthcare specialist more than an Academic source. I have to wonder if as many as 12% of Australians would find Bloggers a trustworthy source of information. The long term effects of a continuing Internet-phobic media campaign by the government, combined with the fact that Australia has opened up the Net in the last 4-5 years, leaves the perception that Bloggers are a questionable source.
Overall, the graphic above will spark useful discussions about the online marketing targets for businesses of any size in Australia.

Further:
Advertisers will spend £3.4 billion in 2008, up 27% from 2007 levels, and will continue double-digit growth through 2010, passing £4.3 billion in 2010 and exceeding £5 billion in 2012, according to online ad spending data released by eMarketer, MarketingCharts writes.

SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey.

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