San Francisco — The old order changeth and how! Wheels of the the social media juggernaut Facebook are all set to overtake the established Yahoo! caravan in the online display advertising market in the U.S. reports MarketWatch.
While Facebook’s share of the U.S. display-advertising pie is at a rise expecting to reach 17.7% this year vis-a-vis 12.2% last year, Yahoo!’s share is on the ebb and expected to flow down to 13.1% as against 14.4% last year, according to data published by eMarketer.
WebProNews says, “In the first quarter Facebook delivered 176 billion display ad impressions, representing 16.2 percent market share. Yahoo sites ranked second with 132 billion impressions (12.1%), followed by Microsoft sites with 60 billion impressions (5.5%) and Fox Interactive Media with 53 billion impressions (4.9%).”
Bloomberg. Com reports, “Facebook, with more than half a billion users, has lured advertisers such as Coca-Cola Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Adidas AG.”
“Facebook’s supreme popularity — both in terms of numbers of people and amount of time they spend there — creates a plethora of display ad impressions, mainly for its unique form of banners,” said David Hallerman, an eMarketer analyst, in the report. “That popularity is also boosting what advertisers will pay for its display ads.”
(Image credit:Creativefeed.net)
The online display-advertising segment in the U.S. consisting of web banners, rich media, sponsorships and video ads is expected to reach 12.33 billion in 2011, of which the social network seeks to have a lion’s share.
There seems to be more disappointment in store for Yahoo!. Emarketer says, “Google, the third player in the top-trio, which long overtook Yahoo! in the search-advertising market is expected to catch up with the internet pioneer in U.S. display ads by next year.”
New York Post reports, “Google is committing more resources to its display ad business, drawing on its formidable client list to sell them on the benefits of both formats. Last week, the Mountain View, Calif., company struck a deal to buy Admeld, a platform that helps publishers buy online display ads.”
In this dark cloud scenario, Hellerman provides a silver lining to Yahoo!, “We project Yahoo!’s display revenue will grow 13.6% which is a very healthy growth. “However, in 2011, the total display market in the US is going to grow by 24.5 percent.”
“Yahoo!’s US display ad revenues will increase by double digits each year from 2010 through 2012. Despite that, not only will Facebook’s display revenues surpass Yahoo!’s this year, Google’s revenues will exceed Yahoo!’s next year,” he said. “What that leapfrogging trend confirms is the strong demand among brand marketers for online display ad placements.”
eMarketer reports,“In the search market, Google will solidify its position as the top site with an increase in market share of nearly 4 percentage points, to 75.2%.”
eMarketer expects Microsoft, where search revenues will be up 16.4% in 2011, to increase its market share slightly for the next two years, while search revenues at Yahoo! will continue a slow decline, dropping to $1.1 billion this year from $1.28 billion in 2010.”
Facebook, which is likely heading for an initial public offering by early next year, has been valued at $80 billion-plus based on its Internet advertising potential. eMarketer forecast that the company’s display advertising revenue in the US alone would grow to about $2.2 billion this year, a jump of almost 81 percent.
Age seems to have caught up with Yahoo! “This slip is yet another of the challenges facing the ageing Internet pioneer as it tries to keep pace with upstarts like Facebook,” opines the New York Post.
Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners hits the nail on the head when he says “Time waits for no one.”