Comparison of company reports with WARC’s media spend projections shows that the amount of ad money available to online platforms beyond Google and Facebook may decline in 2019, by a forecast 0.7% to $111.0bn. Conversely, this duopoly’s ad income is forecast to rise 22.0% to $176.5bn, or 61.4% of global internet adspend.
The calculation assumes Google paying $32.0bn in Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC) this year. This is money paid mostly to Google Network Members – companies which host Google ads on their own websites. Google paid $26.7bn in TAC in 2018.
For online businesses not working with Google, the amount...