The online greeting card industry - an icon of the dot-com boom and a quick victim of the bust - is starting to make some noise again, writes the New York Times. Companies are designing more heavily animated cards to take advantage of broadband, and despite the costs of creating and distributing the cards businesses are generating profit, thanks to a healthy online advertising market and a willingness by consumers to pay for the cards, which now feature better-quality graphics.

Hallmark distributes all of its e-cards free, in exchange for showing short in-house ads to senders and recipients. Competitor American Greetings earlier this month announced its e-card unit had reached 2.5 million subscribers, who pay $14 annually to send an unlimited number of cards. The company also earns money from ads on the site and on the e-cards.

But the biggest surprise of the online greeting card market is a five-person company in Britain, JacquieLawson.com, which according to Nielsen/NetRatings had 22.7 million visitors in December, more than twice its closest competitor, AmericanGreetings.com.