Study: Facebook expected to gain £1 billion in ad revenue next year

Posted by Erina Lin on August 16, 2010 at 2:39 PM

Facebook is expected to bring in £1.13 billion in ad revenue in 2011, while MySpace's ad revenue is forecast to drop 14 percent, according to a new report from eMarketer, MediaGuardian reported.

Facebook has more than 500 million global users now, which has left one-time social networking leader MySpace far behind. This year, its ad revenue is expected to reach $1.285 billion, or £824 million, compared to MySpace's $347 million.

According to eMarketer, about 65 percent of Facebook's ad revenue is from the U.S. market. The proportion is expected to drop a little to less than 60 percent next year.

Between 2009 and 2011, Facebook will see ad revenues up by 165 percent between 2009 and 2011, while MySpace, on the other hand, is expected to have its ad revenue down 14 percent between 2010 and 2011 to $297 million, Media Guardian reported.

"Brand advertisers are making Facebook a core buy. Ad spending is building quickly and the mass audience is one that marketers cannot ignore any longer," said Debra Aho Williamson, a senior analyst at eMarketer.

Zuckerberg said earlier in June that "it is almost a guarantee that Facebook will eventually top 1 billion users," with significant room for growth in countries such as Russia, Japan and China.