Social networking giant Facebook – which is on the cusp of 600m users – booked US$1.86bn worth of advertising in 2010, out of which 60pc came directly from small businesses.
According to eMarketer, small and medium-sized businesses are thronging to Facebook’s self-serve ad system, which could cause concern for US$200bn player Google.
Facebook took in US$1.86bn in advertising in 2010, up 86pc year-on-year. More than US$1.2bn of that revenue came from within the US.
According to eMarketer, 60pc of the total revenue – US$1.1bn – came from small and medium-sized firms.
The remaining US$740m came from major brands like Coke, Proctor & Gamble and Match.com.
Social networking ad spending in 2011
eMarketer predicts ad spending on the world’s top social network will reach US$2.19bn in the US this year and just over US$4bn worldwide — both more than double last year’s figure.
Looking to 2011, eMarketer estimates US marketers will spend US$3.08bn to advertise on social networking sites this year.
Spending will be up 55pc over the US$1.9bn advertisers devoted to social networks in 2010 and will rise by a further 27.7pc next year to reach nearly US$4bn.
“(The year) 2010 was the year that Facebook firmly established itself as a major force not only in social network advertising but all of online advertising,” said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson, author of the upcoming report Worldwide Social Network Ad Spending: 2011 Outlook. “In 2011, its global presence is something multinational advertisers can’t ignore.”
