Tuesday, March 31, 2015

REPORT: Key Players in Digital Marketing Are Shifting

Recently I came across an article on the Social Times (http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/emarketer-digital-marketing/617758). For many tech companies, like Google and Yahoo, digital advertising has become an important part of their business models. Companies that can capitalize on digital ads can push themselves to the top of the market, as Facebook has done in recent years. New data from eMarketer examines how digital marketing’s key players will shift positions in the coming years.

The revenue generated by digital marketing is growing every year, so it is no wonder that social companies would attempt to leverage their user bases to cash in. eMarketer predicts that the combined expenditure on U.S. digital display ads in 2015 will top  $27 billion, and that spending could increase to more than $37 billion by 2017.

Facebook is predicted to capture 25.2 percent of the revenue in the market this year, possibly a result of aggressive expansion. This represents growth of 1.4 percent compared to 2014; however, the growth of market share will increase revenue 29 percent to $6.82 billion, according to eMarketer’s predictions.

Twitter’s share of the market is predicted to increase its by 1.3 percent, with a revenue increase of more than 62 percent. Emarketer expects Amazon’s revenue to grow by more than 23 percent to $820 million, but there is no predicted growth in market share this year.

Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft are all predicted to lose market share and revenue in the coming years. According to eMarketer, Google’s market share is expected to shrink 3.3 percent between 2013 and 2017, while Yahoo will lose 3.7 percent, AOL will slip 1.1 percent and Microsoft will lose 2.7 percent.

During the period between 2014 and 2017 desktop ad revenues are projected to decline slightly while mobile revenues skyrocket. Desktop ad revenues are expected to fall from $12.56 billion to $11.67 billion, while mobile will increase from $9.65 billion to $25.69 billion — an increase of more than 266 percent.

Facebook is predicted to generate $4.91 billion this year, and $7.52 billion by 2017 — an increase of 50 percent. Google will grow at a slower rate, increasing from $1.47 billion to $2.37 billion, and Twitter will grow from $1.19 billion to $2.29 billion by 2017.


It seems companies that have invested in advertising, and especially in mobile advertising, will be dominating the market in the coming years. If Google hopes to maintain its position of dominance, and if the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft want to stay relevant, they’ll need to make a serious investment in mobile.

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