'Google to expand lead in global online-ad mkt'

Google Inc, owner of the most popular Internet search engine, is projected to control about a third of the digital-advertising market this year, extending its lead as mobile and video marketing gain ground.

The Mountain View, California-based company may grab 33 per cent of worldwide revenue from online ads, up from 31 per cent in 2012, EMarketer Inc said. Social-network leader Facebook Inc will increase its share to 5 per cent from 4.1 per cent, while Yahoo! Inc, the biggest US Web portal, will take 3.1 per cent, down from 3.4 per cent, the researcher estimated.

While Google has bolstered revenue by selling marketers space on its main Web-search business for desktop computers, the company has stepped up efforts to expand advertising on tablets and smartphones as well as through YouTube, its video-sharing service. YouTube tripled ad sales on mobile devices in the past half-year, the company said this month.

"Google continues to reign as not only the largest beneficiary of digital ad spending in the US, but worldwide as well," EMarketer said in a statement. "This year, Google will increase revenues faster than the overall market thanks to continued monetization of YouTube and growing adoption of mobile advertising."

Google is projected to generate $8.85 billion in revenue from mobile advertising in 2013, or 56 percent of the worldwide market. That's up from 52 percent in 2012 and 38 percent in 2011, e-marketer said.

Facebook Mobile
Facebook, which only began offering mobile-ad space last year, will be No. 2, with 13 percent of the market, compared with 5.4 percent in 2012. The Menlo Park, California-based social network will bring in $2.04 billion in mobile-advertising revenue this year, a more than fourfold jump from 2012, EMarketer projected.

Internet-radio provider Pandora Media Inc. will take 2.5 percent of worldwide mobile-advertising revenue, and Twitter Inc. is likely to bring in 2 percent, the researcher estimated.

"EMarketer's forecast for digital-ad revenues at select major publishers indicates that online ad spending, like mobile advertising, continues to consolidate among a few major ad sellers," the researcher said in the report.