Google and Facebook together accounted for 20% of global advertising expenditure across all media in 2016, up from 11% in 2012, according to the new edition of Zenith’s Top Thirty Global Media Owners, published today.
Both companies captured 64% of all the growth in global adspend between 2012 and 2016.
“Zenith’s new ranking demonstrates just how much the internet advertising platforms are setting the pace for global adspend growth,” said Jonathan Barnard, Head of Forecasting at Zenith. “Google and Facebook alone have accounted for almost two thirds of global adspend growth since 2012.”
“The scale of the biggest platforms highlights the importance of building strong partnerships between
agencies and media owners,” said Vittorio Bonori, Zenith’s Global Brand President. “Brands need to deal with these platforms to communicate with consumers effectively and efficiently, and agencies need to ensure they do so on the best terms available.”
Google the top, but Twitter experienced the fastest growth
Google (under its holding company Alphabet) is by some distance the largest media owner in the world, attracting $79.4Bn in ad revenue in 2016, three times more than the second largest, Facebook, which attracted $26.9Bn.
The fastest‐growing media owner in Zenith’s list is Twitter, which increased its ad revenues by 734% between 2012 and 2016. Tencent is second, having grown by 697% over this period, and Facebook is third, with 528% growth.
Two other media owners have more than doubled in size between 2012 and 2016: Baidu, which grew 190%, and Sinclair Broadcast Group, which grew 171%.
The largest traditional media owner is Comcast, which takes hird place in Zenith’s ranking, with $12.9Bn in ad revenue.
Five pure-Internet media owners more in the ranking
Following Zenith’s Advertising Expenditure Forecasts, Internet advertising has overtaken
television to become the world’s largest advertising medium this year.
In this context, digital platforms funded by Internet advertising dominate Zenith’s top 30 ranking.
As well as Alphabet and Facebook, there are five more pure‐Internet media owners in the top 30: Baidu, Microsoft, Yahoo, Verizon and Twitter.
All together this seven digital platforms captured $132.8Bn in Internet ad revenue in 2016, or what it’s the same, the 73% of all Internet adspend, and 24% of global adspend across all media.
Verizon became a media owner in 2015 through AOL’s purchase and if all goes as planned this company will become a much larger media owner when it acquires Yahoo later this year. Verizon takes 21st place in the current ranking; adding Yahoo to AOL would push it up to the sixth spot.
Three Chinese companies among the 30 largest media owners in the planet, but US dominates
Most of the media owners in Zenith’s ranking – 20 out of 30 – are based in the US.
The US dominates for several reasons: this country has the biggest ad market, US companies have invested the most in extending their reach abroad, and Silicon Valley innovation has powered the growth of Internet advertising.
China and Germany each have three media owners in the ranking: Baidu, Tencent and CCTV for China, and Bertelsmann, ProSiebenSat.1 and Axel Springer for Germany.
Then there are four countries with one media owner each in the ranking: France (JCDecaux), Brazil (Grupo Globo), Italy (Mediaset) and the UK (ITV).
Just in terms of ad investment grabed
The Top Thirty Global Media Owners report is Zenith’s ranking of the world’s largest media companies, and has been published since 2007.
For this edition Zenith has decided to update the methodology of the research carried out for the report. The media agency of Publicis Group focused barely on media owners’ revenues from advertising, excluding revenues from all other activities. The ad revenues parameter alone gives the true measure of their status in the global advertising market.
Image over the headline.- Jonathan Barnard (Head of Forecasting at Zenith), who signs the commentary to the Top 30 Media Owners Report. Image by courtesy of Jonathan Bar
