Online advertising revenues could increase tenfold in the next three to four years, according to an independent British Internet research company.

Direct mail will suffer the most from the increased shifting of revenues from traditional media to online media, according to Fletcher Research, a UK subsidiary of Forrester Research. Online advertising will also thrive at the expense of outdoor and radio advertising.

The latest Irish venture to tap into the online advertising market is Adculture.net, a company started by three young entrepreneurs last month.

It has offices in Belfast as well as Dublin and avails of cutting edge software to devise, plan, create and manage Internet campaigns.

The research section has the technology to mine a vast amount of up-to-the-minute data, according to Mr Colin Joyce of Adculture.net.

Through the use of cookies, or identity tags, Adculture.net can track what people do when they reach a destination and see if the visit results in a sale.