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Top Four Portals' Ad Revenues to Weather Rough Economy in '08

Google’s strong financial results for Q1 2008 - including a 33% growth in net US advertising revenues - confirms projections that the “Big Four” internet portals will weather the current economic turmoil, eMarketer reports.

Google will record a 32% growth rate in online ad revenue in 2008, according to eMarketer’s projection:

Even as MSN’s net revenue growth in the US reached 24% in 2007 and will nearly repeat at 22.4% this year, its costs for acquiring that revenue reduced net profits, said David Hallerman, senior analyst and author of the report “US Online Advertising: Resilient in a Rough Economy.”

Growth at Yahoo is expected to be at 7.9% in 2008, down from nearly 12% in 2007, and AOL’s online ad revenue growth in ‘08 is forecast to be 9.6%.

Combined, the growth rate of all four top portals is expected to be nearly 22%.

“Google is effectively jacking up the averages. Meanwhile, AOL and Yahoo are working hard just to keep up,” Hallerman said.