Internet ad spend is set to surpass traditional TV advertising for the first time this year as it grows by 13 per cent year-on-year to 36.9 per cent of all advertising expenditure – amounting to $205bn.

Despite leapfrogging TV advertising, the internet’s rate of growth is slowing. According to Zenith Media’s latest Advertising Expenditure Forecasts, it will fall to 12 per cent next year and 10 per cent by 2019 – however, it will continue to add between $23bn and $24bn each year.

The fastest-growing component of internet advertising is social media – growing 51 per cent in 2016, and predicted to grow at an average rate of 20 per cent to 2019. It is expected to hit $55bn in 2019, overtaking printed newspaper’s total of $50bn.

“Internet advertising has contributed all of the growth in global adspend since the beginning of the decade, and has stimulated much of the innovation we’ve seen in the market,” said Vittorio Bonori, Zenith’s global brand president. “Innovation is proceeding as fast as ever, and we believe that this is what will continue to drive brand growth for advertisers.”

The internet’s growth highlights the need for the likes of Google – which has lost a host of advertisers due to ads being placed next to offensive and extremist content – to address brand safety issues, or face hindering growth.

The overall global ad market is forecasted to continue growth of between four and five per cent to 2019. It is expected to grow 4.4 per cent this year, 4.4 per cent in 2018 and 4.2 per cent in 2019.