Paths to profit are still sought
By Polina Kovalskaya
The crisis year of 2011 was truly ‘black’ for the Belarusian Internet advertising market; profit plummeted while other economic segments demonstrated a rise. However, two years on, the situation has stabilised; from January-June 2013, Belarus’ Internet advertising generated over 60 percent more profit. Last year alone, agencies generated around $8m from Internet promotion of goods and services.
Yuri Zisser, the owner of Reliable Software, notes, “We lack enough competition, with the market operating in a ‘demo’ version.” Belarus lags behind global leaders in terms of advertising per Internet user: according to the Global Media Intelligence Report, $209 is spent per Internet user in Australia, followed by $201 in the UK, $191 in Norway, $26 in Russia and just $3 (or less) in Belarus.
Google continues to lead in the field of global Internet advertising, generating $32.7bn (31.5 percent of the market). In fact, its market may well rise by another 2 percent by late 2013. Facebook demonstrated much lower figures in 2012, generating $4.28bn (4.11 percent of the market) but is expected to grow another 5.04 percent this year.
As Mr. Zisser comments, social networks are becoming an attractive venue for advertising, while personal blogs are losing their position: only the most popular blog-writers are making a profit from Internet advertising.