Google and Facebook offer free services to members and generate money by selling ads – search ads, mobile ads, and display ads. The race to increase revenues from ads has pushed aside one-time leaders Yahoo and AOL. While Facebook and Google were tied in the display ads revenue last year, research firm EMarketer has said that this year Google will sell more display ads than Facebook. This means that Google will be the leader in search ads, display ads, and mobile ads.
Google has achieved this by aggressive selling of ads by using its leadership position in search ads, its acquisition of DoubleClick and AdMob, and its strategy of selling ads for YouTube, mobile, and across the web.
Google will now have a 15 percent share of the US display ad market at $2.3 billion in revenues compared to Facebook’s revenue of $2 billion. Larry Page, the Google Chief Executive, expects globally displays ads to bring in $5 billion in revenues for the company.
EMarketer expects the US display ad market to grow to $15 billion this year because of the efforts made by Google and Facebook to expand it, greater use of mobile devices, and a rise in the amount allocated to digital video ads.
