EUR 15 M were spent in Bulgaria for online advertisement in 2008, organizer of the e-Business & e-Marketing Expo - Webit, Plamen Rusev, said.

For comparison, EUR 171 M were spent in Turkey, in Greece – EUR 45 M, and in Romania – EUR 30 M, Rusev added.

The forum is taking place October 7-8, 2009, in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. Its main focus is on the digital revolution in business in the new global technological environment.

Webit is organized by e-Academy – a Sofia-based international education institute which holds a governmental license for professional avocation center in the fields of management and digital marketing.

The forum consists of two parts – a conference, and an expo. The conference features speakers and lecturers from top global companies in the e-business field such Google, Coca-Cola, eBay, Yandex, Amazon, Guardian, Ciao, BBC, Bytemobile, AOL, PayPal.

The Balkan countries are the fastest developing markets in the digital advertisement segment, Alain Heureux, President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (IAB Europe), said.

“You will be even bigger if you work together”, he added.

In 2008, EUR 13 B were invested in online advertisement in Europe, but IAB's ambition is to reach the US, Heureux said. In his words, 10% of the total advertisement expenditures in the whole worlds are given for web advertisement, and he hopes that the percentage is going to increase.

“Despite the global economic crisis, the first edition of Webit enjoys huge interest. Or maybe that is because of it. In a time of optimization of marketing budgets, the companies are logically seeking the proven efficiency of digital marketing from the respective authoritative specialists”, Plamen Rusev told Novinite.com.