Mar 1, 2011 16:04 GMT  ·  By
The online advertising market will see accelerated growth in the next couple of years
   The online advertising market will see accelerated growth in the next couple of years

The online advertising market continues to grow at a solid pace, especially in the US. The latest data shows that the market is growing overall, with Google, Facebook and to a lesser degree Microsoft all seeing gains.

Google, of course, leads the pack, but Facebook is coming from behind and is estimated to overtake Microsoft this year, while getting closer to the number two, Yahoo.

"Net US ad revenues on the social network now surpass those of Microsoft or AOL, thanks largely to massive display revenues. But in the overall online ad market, Google and Yahoo! remain the front-runner," eMarketer writes.

"Net US ad revenues will be up 23.5% at Google this year to nearly $12.4 billion. Second-place Yahoo!’s $3.4 billion in revenues will represent a year-over-year decline of 2.1%. The highest growth will be at Facebook, where revenues will be up 80.9% in 2011 after 164.1% growth in 2009 and a 117.8% increase last year," it continues.

The firm estimates that ad revenue will grow in 2011 and 2012 at an accelerated rate. While the overall market will grow, Google will gain an ever bigger share.

By 2012, Google will be making $15 billion a year from advertising, up from $10 billion in the last year. By that time, Google will be raking in close to half of all ad spending online in the US.

Yahoo, on the other hand will stagnate, but will manage to keep its second place, though its share will shrink to 10.8 percent by 2012, down from 13.4 percent in 2010.

Facebook will move to the third spot, overtaking Microsoft. Already, its estimated ad revenue in the US is very close to Microsoft's. Of course, since Facebook is a private company, there is no official data.

But, moving further, Facebook's growth will outpace Microsoft's and the social network will get close to $2.9 billion in ad revenue in 2012, this while Microsoft will make do with $1.95 billion.