Report: Google Rules the World
ZenithOptimedia has issued a report that shows that Google controls over 44% of the global online advertising, making it easily the dominant player in the industy.
Internet advertising is now clearly dominated by Google, which has increased its share of the internet ad market from 34.9% in 2006 to 44.1% in 2010. Over this time Google has tightened its grip on global search (raising its share of searches from 72% in 2006 to 85% now) and established a lead in traditional display and online video with the help of the acquisition and development of companies like DoubleClick and YouTube. In addition, its three main early competitors (Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL) have failed to match this pace of development and lost a lot of ground; their combined market share fell from 33.1% in 2006 to 13.8% in 2010. Since 2006 Facebook has established itself as a major supplier, increasing its market share from just 0.2% to 3.1% in 2010. Last year Facebook doubled its share and overtook AOL; at its current pace of growth it is likely to overtake Microsoft by the end of 2011.
The problem with this report, as mentioned by several commentators already, is that Google is facing possible anti-trust lawsuits. It’s very hard to make the argument that they aren’t dominating the market when…they are dominating the market.
