Facebook’s global ad revenues will reach nearly US$26 billion this year, up from US$17.05 billion in 2015, according to a new report from eMarketer. The U.S. research company is predicting further growth to US$33.76 billion by 2017.
The company said much of the growth would come from mobile, which is expected to account for US$21.98 billion in revenue this year, a 66.6% increase over last year. Double-digit mobile growth is expected to continue through at least 2018.
Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer, said the social media giant continued to go “pedal to the metal” in terms of building out its products and services.
In addition to its flagship product, other services such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger continue to perform well, with eMarketer predicting Messenger would reach more than 40% of U.S. mobile phone users this year and more than half by 2020.
“Facebook is clearly getting close to monetizing Messenger and WhatsApp,” said Williamson, noting the company made changes to WhatsApp’s privacy policy in August that pave the way for consumers to communicate more easily with businesses via the app. In September, it also added buy buttons and native payments to the app.
While noting that its virtual reality division Occulus had faced challenges in gaining traction, Williamson said it remained early days for the VR space.
Much of Facebook’s growth is coming from outside the U.S., with non-U.S. revenue representing more than half (54%) of its global total.
Williamson said Facebook had a “hiccup” in September when it was revealed it had been overstating to advertisers how much time people spent watching video on the platform, but eMarketer doesn’t expect brands to reign in their spending as a result.
However, she predicted a future push for “more rigorous” third-party measurement of ad performance on properties such as Facebook.
