If you’re trying to make money with new media, IDC has some good news for you.

U.S. Internet advertising is growing like mad – up by 25% in 2007 to over 25 billion dollars. And the money’s not all going to Google.
Research Highlights: 

• As people spend more time on the Internet, companies are moving their advertising dollars from traditional media to online media.
• Total U.S. Internet ad spending in the fourth quarter of 2007 (4Q07) grew nearly 28% over the same quarter in 2006 to $7.3 billion.
• Google’s net U.S. market share declined for the first time in two years due to slower growth in domestic fourth quarter sales. The market leader’s net U.S. Internet advertising market share was down 0.5 percentage points to 23.7% last quarter compared to 3Q07.

“If a merger between Microsoft’s new media business and Yahoo! would come to pass, the combined entity would have a net U.S. advertising market share of about 17% based on our 4Q07 data,” says IDC’s Karsten Weide. “It would not quite bring Microsoft-Yahoo! to where Google is in online advertising in the U. S., but it would give them a much better fighting chance than if they went it alone.”