Google is the undisputed king of online advertising and that is only likely to increase in the years to come. According to a new report from research firm eMarketer, that share could increase to as much as 80 percent by 2018, at the cost of fellow search giants Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yelp.
The dominance of Google at the top of the U.S. search advertisement for years. What is impressive about the eMarkter report, as reported by Recode, is that it continues to make such big leaps. In 2016, its share of the market was 75.8 percent, jumping by a further two percent by 2017.
It’s predicted to rise again in 2018, hitting 80 percent for the first time, though that growth is thought likely to slow in 2019, rising by 0.2 percent. If true, that would generate more than $36.6 billion for the Alphabet owned company that year.
In contrast, Microsoft has seen its share of the online search ad market dwindle over the past year, falling to under eight percent in 2017. If eMarketer’s forecast holds true, it could drop to as little as 6.6 percent by 2019.
Joining its downturn is Yahoo, which has seen its piece of the pie dip to 2.7 percent this year, with expectations of further dwindling over the next couple of years — though not as drastic as Microsoft.
The only companies other than Google to see their shares of the market increase this year have been IAC and Amazon, which each rose by 0.1 percent and are expected to do the same in the next couple of years.
All of the above should also be taken in the context of U.S.-only advertising revenue. In countries around the world, other companies are likely to have much more dominant positions, especially in territories like China where Google’s access is severely restricted.
Search ad revenue is not the be-all and end-all of online advertisements in 2017 either. In another eMarketer report, Google falls behind Facebook in terms of display advertising. There, the social network earns more than three times as much as Google, though part of that comes from its ownership of Instagram.
