Google, Facebook remain digital advertising kingpins

Google and Facebook’s overwhelming control of the digital advertising marketplace is expected to grow even larger in the coming years, according to a new analysis by eMarketer.

The two Internet giants are expected to earn 63.1% of all digital advertising investment this year, outstripping eMarketer’s previous prediction for a combined 60.4% market share. Both companies are earning several billion dollars more from digital advertising than rivals like Microsoft, Verizon and Amazon.

“Google and Facebook have positioned themselves at the front of this demand curve by being the ad publishers with some of the best-in-class targeting abilities in the digital ad market,” said Monica Peart, eMarketer’s senior director of forecasting. “With Facebook being able to provide targeting based upon consumer interests and Google capitalizing on where those consumers have been through searches, both companies ensure their lead among digital ad publishers.”

Google is set to earn $35 billion in U.S. digital ad revenue in 2017, up 18.9% compared to last year. With that total, Google controls 42.2% of the total marketplace. More than half of this year’s total is drawn from mobile ads on smartphones and over devices.

Facebook’s projected earnings total $17.37 billion, up 40.4% from 2016. Mark Zuckerberg’s total now controls 20.9% of the market, according to the analysis.

The analytics firm projects that Google’s overall take will rise to more than $45 billion by the year 2019, while Facebook’s will grow to more than $25.5 billion.

Meanwhile, social media rival Twitter is seeing its share of the digital ad market dwindle. The microblogging platform’s revenue is expected to top more than 10% to $1.21 billion this year.