Search market expected to reach $5bn by 2005
16 October 2003
An increasingly competitive search market is set to balloon to a value of $5 billion (£3 billion) within the next two years, according to industry analysts.
Search has become an increasingly lucrative branch of Internet services, with many firms competing for a share in a market previously dominated by leaders Yahoo and Google.
According to META Group, sponsored search results will largely be responsible for the predicted boost in search revenue, a growing number of advertisers paying for space on listings.
META also insists that individual ventures into the search market have greater chances of success, referring specifically to Microsoft's recent decision not to renew its contract with search provider LookSmart.
'It's too late to build affiliate networks that can compete with Yahoo/Overture Services and Google, without one or both of the public portal giants (MSN and AOL) as subscribers,' commented Timothy Hickernell, vice president at META.
'Unfortunately LookSmart's 'independent' message cannot be translated into enough value to advertisers to compensate for the small size of its current affiliate network,' he said, according to Telecom.Paper.
Mr Hickernell asserted that the nature of the search market is conducive to innovation and unlikely to develop into a monopoly, since advertisers bid against each other for placement.
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