GAMA to Take 70 Percent of Online Advertising Revenue Outside of China

Google, Amazon, Meta (formerly Facebook), and Apple, collectively GAMA, commanded 70% of the online advertising market outside of China in 2021, according to Omdia. GAMA significantly outperformed the total global advertising market in 2020, posting 17% combined growth compared to a -1% decline in total global net media advertising revenue.

This outperformance of the market continued into 2021 and is driving up GAMA’s share of total global net media advertising revenue as media owners, which stood at 33% in 2020 and is set to reach 39% by the end of 2021. Google in particular continues to outperform the overall advertising market in 2021. “Based on Google’s results for the first three quarters of 2021, we are projecting that the company will see full-year growth of 40.6% - its highest full-year growth since 2007,“ said Marija Masalskis, senior principal analyst at Omdia.

Omdia analysis shows that while market leaders in traditional media segments, such as linear TV, will continue to enjoy strong positions in their increasingly small corners of the market, GAMA’s dominance of online advertising looks set to continue unabated. As a result, media owners across the open internet, outside of GAMA’s walled gardens, will see their share of the total market shrink, despite efforts to boost scale and technological integration through new partnerships and consolidation. These players will also be more heavily impacted by pivots to privacy and the impending death of cookies - expected to start in 2H23 - than the tech giants due to the strength of the first-party data and user reach they enjoy within their ecosystems.

GAMA’s strength in the advertising market is even greater when their roles as ad technology and network providers are considered. When including all online ad revenue that flows through their platforms, GAMA’s share of total net media advertising revenue increases to 45% in 2021, and its share of the online segment increases to 65%. This means that just 35% of global online ad revenue generated by media owners remained untouched by Google, Amazon, Meta, or Apple during 2021.

“Google, Meta and, increasingly, Amazon dominate the global online advertising market outside of China, and their influence over the entire media ecosystem will only grow further in the coming years as online cements itself as the dominant media advertising format,“ commented Matthew Bailey, principal analyst at Omdia.

When excluding China, the world’s second-largest advertising market where GAMA’s ad operations are prohibited, GAMA’s share of total net media advertising revenue in 2021 rises to 46%, while their share of online advertising revenue stands at 70% during the same year - or 81% if you include all online ad revenue flowing through their platforms. GAMA’s media owner share of total net media advertising revenue excluding China will reach 51% by 2025.