Global consumers have further increased their reliance on online product reviews at the expense of traditional channels of advertising, according to research by the Nielsen Company.

The data underline the fact that there has been a surge of interest from retailers and manufacturers in so-called “word-of-mouth” marketing on the internet.

A twice-yearly survey of more than 25,000 online consumers in 50 countries in April found that 70 per cent trusted product reviews posted online, an increase of 9 percentage points on April 2007.

Full story at ft.com