Things are looking great for the online advertising industry. Several recent reports share data that is quite optimistic for the industry as a whole.

eMarketer points to research from GroupM, which claims that digital spending will be at 17% of total US ad spending in 2010. This would be an increase from 15.4% this year and 13.9% in 2008. GroupM also predicts 4% growth in US online ad spending in 2009, to $22.77 billion.

The firm says that growth will increase to 7% next year, and worldwide, online spending will climb 9% this year, and make it back to double-digit growth in 2010. eMarketer provides the following graph:

GroupM also says worldwide spending will rise to $58.17 billion this year with online taking 13.2% of total ad dollars. GroupM predicts that share will increase to 14.6% next year.

The firm attributes the growth to increases in spending on search and mobile, as well as declining spending in traditional media. They say Internet spending outperformed all other media channels during the recession, with video particularly becoming a big force.
 
In the UK, online advertising expenditure grew 4.6% to £1.75 billion in the first half of the year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Online overtook television for the first time, to become the UK's largest advertising medium. The IAB says ad expenditure online is up £82m to a record market share of 23.5%.

"The UK remains the world leader in terms of market share for online, with the medium accounting for 23.5% in the first half of 2009," says the IAB. "The results signal a significant restructure of marketing budgets as advertisers follow their audiences online and look to the Internet for even more measurable and accountable methods."

For more details about the incredible growth of online advertising in the UK, read the IAB's report here.

Nielsen recently released data finding that social networks accounted for 17% of all time spent on the Web in August. This was quite an increase from 6% in 2008. Advertising spending on the top social networking and blogging sites more than doubled in August, jumping to $108 million from about $49 million in August of 2008.

WebProNews discussed more details from Nielsen's report here.