Business

Facebook And Google Dominate More Than Just Ad Revenue

[Shutterstock - quka]

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Eric Lieberman Managing Editor
Font Size:

Facebook and Google don’t just dominate the advertising market — both tech conglomerates also have a disproportionate stake in the mobile app marketplace.

Combined, Facebook and Google own each of the top six apps in regards to highest reach, according to Business Insider, and eight of the top 10. Reach, in this instance, specifically media analysis and marketing, refers to the total number of different people exposed to the app during a given time. Having a high reach means high user engagement, which will attract advertisers to its platform, thus yielding ample amounts of revenue.

Facebook’s primary app holds the top spot with 81 percent reach, also known as audience penetration. The app also ranks the highest for monthly users at 147 million. In third place, Facebook’s instant messaging platform known as Messenger has a 68 percent reach, BI reports, and Instagram attains sixth with 50 percent.

Facebook basically forced users to download Messenger after changing its policy last year to only allow direct mobile message communications through the app. (RELATED: Facebook Is Making Messenger The Go-To App For Everything On Your Phone)

YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006, is in second place with 71 percent audience penetration. Other Google apps, like Search and Maps, followed up with 61 percent and 57 percent, respectively, putting those apps at fourth and fifth. Aside from Snapchat and Pandora, the others in the top ten are also owned by Google (Gmail and Google Play).

These statistics exhibit a stark dominance in the app business, specifically how lower-level apps are finding it difficult to break Facebook and Google’s stronghold. Google and Facebook also have a massive share in another key industry that profitably pairs well with its extensive app marketplace influence.

The two tech corporations earn roughly half of all global advertisement dollars, according to an Axios report, dwarfing all other companies. Combined, the two tech companies account for 90 percent of the growth in new ad revenue. (RELATED: Facebook Exec Says It May Start Making You Pay For The News)

Google made $80.8 billion in 2017 from marketing, while Facebook yielded $36.3 billion during that time span. Besides three other tech conglomerates based in China, the next 12 companies — which includes Amazon, Microsoft, Verizon, Pandora, Twitter, Snapchat, and Yelp — bring in roughly half of what Google collects in ad revenue annually. (Amazon, though, appears to be gaining steam as 30 percent of smartphone users said they “cannot go without” its main app, while Facebook’s core app and Gmail garnered 37 and 34 percent, respectively, according to The Street).

An array of media organizations, including giants like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, are petitioning federal lawmakers to provide an exemption from antirust regulations so it can collectively negotiate against Facebook and Google. Under the coalition known as the News Media Alliance, the industry wants to earn more ad revenue and end Google and Facebook’s hegemony. (RELATED: Google, Facebook Are Super Upset They May No Longer Be Able To Sell Your Internet Data Without Permission)

This petition follows another one by a British media outlet, which sought to “stop” the two companies from “destroying journalism” by hogging digital ad revenue from traditional news publishers and essentially creating a “duopoly.”

Follow Eric on Twitter

Send tips to eric@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.