User-Gen to Grow Into $4.3 Bil. Business

User-generated content on the Web is set to rapidly shift from an budding consumer trend to a serious business over the next five years.

Ad spending on Web sites that have built their traffic on user-gen staples like social networking, photo sharing and amateur video is expected to soar to $4.3 billion in 2011, according to a new report issued by eMarketer. That’s an whopping increase of 330 percent versus the $1 billion expected to be spent in the space this year – which is itself more than double the $450 million in ad revenue tracked by eMarketer in 2006. >> Full Story

Thoughts// Certainly not a surprise considering the popularity of YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, but still some interesting predictions on ad spending in the UGC space.