Google and Facebook Digital Dominance is Fading in U.S.

Google and Facebook Digital Dominance is Fading in U.S.
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Google and Facebook may control the bulk of the US digital ad market, but their competitors are starting to eat into that share, according to eMarketer’s latest US ad spending forecast.

The duo will capture 56.8% of the US digital ad market this year, compared with 58.5% last year (see charts for breakdown). Those figures have been adjusted downward as smaller players such as Amazon and Snapchat experience faster-than-expected growth. Facebook’s US ad revenue will grow to $21.00 billion this year. That gives the social network a 19.6% share of the US digital ad market, down slightly from 19.9% last year.

“Facebook’s user growth in the US has slowed down and is now about the same as that of internet users, while News Feed ad prices may be reaching their limit,“ says eMarketer senior forecasting director Monica Peart. “Meanwhile, Instagram, with its rapidly increasing advertiser base, will quickly become the engine that drives growth for the whole.“

In 2018, Facebook-owned Instagram will surpass 5% of the US digital ad market with $5.48 billion in revenue. That gives Instagram a 7.3% share of the US mobile ad market. This year Instagram’s US revenue will make up more than one-quarter (28.2%) of Facebook’s ad mobile revenue.

This year, Google will rake in just over 37% of the US digital ad market with $39.92 billion. While still the dominant player, and expected to continue to be for the next several years, Google’s share of the US digital market is also declining slightly. Last year it had a 38.6% share.