Digital intelligence company eMarketer has said that Facebook will grow its net US display revenues this year by another 80.9% to $2.19bn, pushing it past Yahoo to become the No. 1 display ad-selling company in the US.
eMarketer said that the growth is actually actually a slowdown in growth for the social networking company.
Facebook had posted triple-digit display ad revenue growth in 2009 and 2010 when its display revenues were at relatively low levels. Next year, growth will is expected to slow further to just 31.3%, said eMarketer.
eMarketer principal analyst David Hallerman said Facebook’s supreme popularity — both in terms of numbers of people and amount of time they spend there — creates a plethora of display ad impressions, mainly for its unique form of banners.
"And that popularity is also boosting what advertisers will pay for its display ads," said Hallerman.
The company also said that Google is also posting solid growth this year. The search engine company had more than doubled its display ad revenues in 2010.
Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL will all make double-digit gains as the total display market rises 24.5%, said eMarketer.
"Display revenue growth at Google will come from three main sources: large advertisers who are already Google customers, the range of SMBs who have relied on search for years but are looking to expand their reach, and brand marketers looking to YouTube to widen their video advertising reach," said Hallerman.
"Google is looking to make display a natural extension of search."
