France was not a earlier adopter in the Internet era, and French companies were relatively slow to move into the online advertising market.

Now the situation has changed. The Internet penetration and online marketing spending are booming, and France has become the third largest online advertising market in Europe, only behind the UK and Germany. French online ad market will grow nearly 35 percent in 2007, and exceed $4 billion by 2011, according to eMarketer.

"It's true that online advertising campaigns are fairly new to the French, and most French companies still put the bulk of their online efforts into Web sites and e-mail designed to communicate brand messages. But France is rapidly catching up and a number of the country's big brands are beginning to experiment with blogs and other new techniques, including mobile advertising," Karin von Abrams, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the new report, France Online Advertising, said.

"The growth in mobile Internet usage, especially this year and next, and the development of rich media advertising are helping to shift the French online ad market into a higher gear," Ms. von Abrams said.

According to the report “Ad Barometer 2007" from Interdeco Expert, BIPE and OMD, the online ad spending in France is burgeoning, making much greater contribution to the overall market, from 1.75 percent in 2003, 3.45 percent in 2005, to 6.32 percent in 2007.