Just five companies are expected to attract over half of global advertising spend this year, according to recent research from WARC.
The forecast was based on data from a survey of media owners, industry bodies, ad agencies, and research organizations in 100 markets worldwide as well as advertising revenue data from 40 of the largest media owners.
The researchers forecast that 50.7% of global advertising spend will go to Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, Bytedance, and Meta in 2023, and that this share will rise to 51.9% in 2024.
Advertising revenue among this group of five companies is expected to grow by 9.1% in 2023 and by 10.7% in 2024.
The researchers forecast that global ad spend will grow by 4.4% in 2023 to reach a total of $963.5 billion, and then by 8.2% in 2024 to reach a total of $1.04 trillion.
The fastest-growing advertising channel in 2024 is expected to be social media, followed by connected TV (CTV) and retail media.
Driven mostly by the US Presidential campaign, politics-related ad spend is forecast to grow by 504% in 2024 to reach a new high of $15.5 billion.
The United States is forecast to account for almost a third (31.3%) of global spend in 2023 and ad spend in the country is expected to grow by 7.6% in 2024.
About the research: The report was based on data from a survey of media owners, industry bodies, ad agencies, and research organizations in 100 markets worldwide as well as advertising revenue data from 40 of the largest media owners.
