The Frightening Math Behind Online Advertising

There is a lot of money in worldwide digital advertising. In fact, according to ZenithOptimedia, roughly $64 billion dollars.

And while Google would like you to think that it only makes up “30% of online advertising revenue among owned and operated properties,” blogger Darren Herman has the real breakdown.

Using information from its 10-K filings, Herman determined Google’s 2010 total digital revenue to be over $29 billion dollars. (Small point: seems to us that $29 billion is Google’s total revenue and $28 billion is Google’s revenue from advertising).

Either way, with just a little bit of basic mathematics, it is clear that Google controls roughly half of the worldwide digital advertising market.

Not only that, but Google controls three times as much as its four closest competitors: Yahoo!, Microsoft, Facebook and AOL.

And one company with overwhelming control over a critical market raises serious concerns about competition and choice for online advertisers.

Just ask SourceTool.