Forecast: Amazon and Snapchat gain US ad revenues at Google and Facebook’s expense

eMarketer report says Amazon will cross $2 billion in US ad revenue this year.

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According to new estimates from eMarketer, Google and Facebook’s hold over the US online ad market is loosening — slightly. The so-called duopoly’s combined share of US advertising will be a projected 56.8 percent in 2018, compared with 58.5 percent last year.

The decline, if we can call it that, is attributed to the rise of Amazon and Snapchat. The data aggregator says that in 2018 “Amazon will cross $2 billion in US ad revenue for the first time,” capturing nearly 3 percent of US digital ad revenue. Roughly a third of the company’s revenues come from mobile devices.

Amazon is increasingly focused on online advertising and sees it as a source of future growth.

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Snapchat will also see growth. Its share of US digital ad revenue is expected to cross 1 percent this year and exceed $1 billion for the first time. This represents more than 80 percent growth versus with a year ago. Still, Snapchat is much less of a threat to Google and Facebook than Amazon.

As has been widely reported, Facebook’s US user growth is relatively flat. But Facebook-owned Instagram is growing, and so is its revenue.

Facebook’s US ad revenues are projected to be $21 billion this year, according to eMarketer. That represents just under 20 percent of the US digital market. However, Instagram is projected to capture more than 5 percent digital ad revenues, reaching nearly $5.5 billion in the US.

Instagram’s share of mobile ad revenues will be 7.3 percent, says eMarketer.

The dominant platform, Google, will capture 37 percent US digital ad revenue for a total of just under $40 billion in 2018. Revenues are growing, but its share of the overall digital ad market is down almost 2 points.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Greg Sterling
Contributor
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

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