Social media sites to catch up newspaper ads by 2020

THE AMOUNT of money spent on advertising on social media is set to catch up with newspaper ad revenues by 2020, a leading forecaster said yesterday.

The rapid expansion of social media platforms on mobile devices, as well as faster internet connectivity, has triggered a shift in the way people get their news.

Advertising agency Zenith Optimedia, owned by France’s Publicis, predicted global advertising expenditure on social media would account for 20 percent of all internet advertising in 2019, hitting $50 billion (R692bn) and coming in just one percent smaller than newspaper ads. It expects social media to overtake newspapers comfortably by 2020.

“Social media and online video are driving continued growth in global ad spend, despite political threats to the economy,” said Jonathan Barnard, the head of forecasting at Zenith.

The media industry has been convulsed by the shift in advertising trends in recent years, with firms moving their ad budgets from traditional sources such as newspapers to websites found on computers and cellphones.

Marketers are putting their spending to social sites where ads blend into users’ newsfeeds proving more effective than interruptive banner formats. Zenith’s report forecasts that global advertising expenditure will grow 4.4 percent in 2017. – Reuters