Google has a new competitor in online advertising – and it’s today’s most famous Internet startup. According to market research firm eMarketer, social networking website Facebook earned revenues of $1.86 billion last year – from advertising alone. Whoa. The figure surpassed the estimate of many industry observers, who had asserted that Facebook was on track to reach $2 billion in revenues in 2010 – a total that Facebook has likely met and exceeded, considering that online advertising is only one of its several revenue streams. “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 analyst Debra Aho Williamson, who is also the author of the upcoming report, “Worldwide Social Network Ad Spending: 2011 Outlook”. Williamson added that 60 percent of Facebook’s ad revenue came from small businesses. Facebook’s total online ad earnings, which came mostly from the 50 billion display ads placed on – Read the full article
Successful modern businesses know that the best way to cash in on an ever-decreasing post-credit crunch consumer market is to gain trade online. Any entrepreneur who has noted the decline in passing high street trade and dipped their toe into the web market will know that gaining a share of online business is a complex process. One extremely important piece of the Web marketing puzzle is pay-per-click (or PPC) advertising. What is PPC? PPC advertising offers businesses access to an intensely targeted range of online marketing services. Depending on their own needs and the perceived habits of their potential client base, websites can draw in customers using a number of clever targeting techniques. PPC advertising is offered by online giants, such as Google and Yahoo, and by social networking sites like Facebook. It also comes in bespoke form through professional PPC companies, who can place PPC anchor text links in web copy posted on third-party sites and blogs. Choosing a PPC – Read the full article
Online social gaming – or playing games on social networks – is about to go big this year. We’re talking one-billion-dollars big. New York research firm eMarketer reports that the social gaming market is expected to pass $1 billion this 2011 – a 28 percent rise from last year’s $856 million – and that close to 62 million US Internet users will play at least one game a month this year. The rapid rise of social gaming, according to eMarketer, will be driven by three main contributors: online advertising, online lead generation, and the implementation of branded virtual goods. Last year, 53 million Americans played at least one game on a social network, a staggering number that can be attributed to the rising popularity of social games like FarmVille, CityVille, Pet Society, and the Mafia Wars Game, among many others that one would find on Facebook or MySpace. The number is expected to grow this year, along with dollars that – Read the full article
It looks like snubbing the world’s number one search engine was the right move after all. Just a little over a month after rejecting Google’s $5.3 billion offer, daily deals website – and one of today’s fastest growing companies – Groupon has raised $950 million in one of the largest venture funding rounds of all time. The financing came from a long list of venture capital firms and investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Accel Partners, Battery Ventures, DST, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Silver Lake, Maverick Capital, Technology Crossover Ventures, Mail.Ru Group, and New Enterprise Associates. “We’re thrilled that Groupon has earned the confidence of some of the world’s most respected investment firms,” said Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of Groupon. “With their support, we will continue on our mission to change the way people shop locally and serve the world’s local businesses.” Added Greylock Partners venture capitalists Reid Hoffman and James Slayet in a TechCrunch guest blog post: “We – Read the full article
Online advertising is back – and bigger than ever. US online ad spending rose by 13.9 percent in 2010, reaching a new record of $25.8 billion after a downslide in 2009. According to digital marketing research firm eMarketer, this figure surpasses that of advertising spending in newspapers (print and online editions), which fell to $25.7 billion in 2010: a decline of 6.6 percent. Among several measured media, only TV generates more advertising dollars than the Internet. The results of eMarketer’s study mark a new milestone for advertising on the Internet – and a trend that is likely to continue in the next few years. It is estimated that in 2011, Internet ad spending will account for about $28.5 billion, while ad spending on newspapers is expected to continue to decline. Said Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, “It’s something we’ve seen coming for a long time, but this is a tipping point.” eMarketer cites three key reasons for the steady rise – Read the full article
Growing even more rapidly than China’s booming economy, online advertising revenue has surged throughout 2010 – and this rapid growth rate is projected to last at least for the next several years. Industry trade paper Adweek reports that online advertising buys in the U.S. are poised to exceed $25 billion in 2010. According to revised numbers from online research firm, eMarketer, the year-over-year increase in online advertising is forecast to come in at 13.9 percent, after all is said and done over the holiday season. Total revenues will total $25.8 billion by the end of the year, they predict. eMarketer raised its estimates for U.S internet advertising several times over the course of the year, Adweek reports. At the beginning of 2010, eMarketer forecast modest growth (i.e., modest growth, that is, in terms of online advertising) of 5.5 percent. That estimate had doubled to a projected 11 percent growth rate by May, and has grown from there. The latest revision of – Read the full article
Are you ready for 2011? As the Internet transforms, so should you. The rate at which technology evolves only means that, no matter how far along you’ve come with your Internet marketing program, there will always be something new to explore. There’ll always be something new to add to the mix. It is in this light that Lakeshore Branding takes a look at a number of online marketing trends expected to take off next year. We present this hoping that you’ll turn these expectations into opportunities – and the opportunities into tools to drive your business. HTML5: As the next major revision of the HTML standard, HTML5 is expected to emerge next year – and beyond – as that which will change the chemistry of the World Wide Web. Under development for much of the last few years, HTML5 will nonetheless continue to usher in the next generation of web development and programming. It will be supported by more browsers, – Read the full article
Google-Groupon Deal? Search giant Google is reported to be offering as much as $6 billion for leading e-Commerce coupon site, Groupon. According to a number of media sources, the deal’s initial payment will be worth about $5.3 billion, with the remaining $700 million to be used as an incentive for keeping Groupon’s employees. The deal, if it happens, is going to be Google’s largest acquisition yet, much bigger than its successful $3.1 billion bid for DoubleClick and the $1.65 billion price tag of the company’s YouTube deal. Launched in November 2008 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Groupon is a social shopping network that delivers daily deals to users in cities across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. While the price of the rumoured acquisition seems high – Groupon only has an estimated $600 million in revenue – industry observers say that the coupon site is the clear leader in a rapidly growing new category on the Internet. Its overwhelming success in – Read the full article
