The Economic Value of the Advertising-Supported Internet Ecosystem

The ad-supported internet ecosystem generated $1.121 trillion for the U.S. economy in 2016— more than doubling the contribution it made in 2012, according to a comprehensive study led by Prof. John Deighton at the Harvard Business School.

The study, “The Economic Value of the Advertising-Supported Internet Ecosystem,” commissioned by IAB, found that the ad-supported internet is responsible for 10.4 million jobs in the U.S., accounting for 7.3 percent of the country’s total nonfarm employment. That is twice the number of jobs the industry supported in 2012. In addition, the annual growth rate of employment in the ad-supported internet economy was 19.6 percent from 2012 to 2016, far exceeding the U.S. total nonfarm employment . . .