Facebook and Google’s digital advertising dominance has grown over the years to a market share of about 60 percent combined and there is little sign that their growth will slow down anytime soon.
But history has shown that nothing lasts forever on the web. Just ask AOL, Napster or MySpace.
A number of emerging trends are threatening to eat into the dominance of these two tech giants – or at least water down their advantage over the competition.
The following trends could pose a significant threat to Facebook and Google’s hold on digital advertising.
The growth of Amazon as an e-commerce giant could topple competitors in the digital advertising space. Amazon has grown by more than 50 percent in 2019 and now commands almost 9 percent of the market. Its unlimited resources, including a treasure trove of data and potentially a new ISP, makes it Facebook and Google’s biggest threat.
For years Google and Facebook have duopolized user data to build their market share and revenue. But in recent years there is increased proliferation of customer data platforms and demand for the two to open up their data. This could push them to democratize their advertising data and lose customers.
The rise of blockchain as a tool to manage the advertising supply chain has created a much more level data playing field for all parties, including individual users, by tracking all transactions in a system visible to all involved. This has watered down Google and Facebook’s control over users’ identity and data permissions.
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There has been increased scrutiny by regulators with antitrust probes into Facebook and Google to investigate allegations that the two tech giants stifle competition in the digital advertising space. A deal between Google and health care provider Ascension is also under investigation after the Wall Street Journal raised concerns over access to the health data of millions of people through the deal.
Both TikTok, which was the world’s most downloaded app in 2018, and Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, have announced plans to build in-house capabilities that will augment their capacity to sell digital advertising space. Others like Netflix and Amazon Prime could fragment media consumption in a way that attracts viewers away from Facebook and Google content.
