According to data released by communications firm ZenithOptimedia, Google now owns 44% of the global advertising market. This is up nearly 10% over the past five years, solidifying Google’s dominance in online advertising. Google has continued to gain market share at an impressive rate, largely due to acquisitions such as YouTube.
Facebook is also gaining market share of global ad spend, though not at the expense of Google. It seems that Facebook is instead taking the revenue from Microsoft and AOL, and will likely pass Microsoft in global ad revenue by the end of the year.
Despite recent economic instability, ZenithOptimedia predicts continued growth in global ad spend through 2014. They credit much of the growth to the quadrennial effect – events occurring every four years. These events include the summer Olympics, Presidential elections, European Football Championship, and a handful of other major events. Japan’s continued recovery from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami will also continue to improve the advertising spend. ZenithOptimedia believes that these two events will contribute an additional $7 billion into global ad spend.
It is expected that 48% of all growth in global ad spend will come from ten developing markets. Of these ten, Brazil, Russia, India, and China are expected to account for 33% of the growth. ZenithOptimedia also expects Internet advertising to become a greater piece of total global ad spend increasing to 21.2%.
Google Receives 44% of Global Ad Spend
