The CEO of WPP, the largest advertising company in the world, told CNBC that companies are looking for other platforms to place their advertising online beyond the “duopoly” of Facebook and Google.
“What our clients want, and indeed what the agencies want, is more competition in the marketplace, so anything that provides more competition to the duopoly of Facebook and Google,”Sir Martin Sorrell said on Thursday.
According to Sorrell, the two internet giants account for around 75 percent of online advertising budgets (21 percent of worldwide advertising in total). WPP themselves placed $5 billion in advertising with them last year.
There are now competitors that are rising against these two. Amazon’s advertising platform is currently valued at around $35o billion, and Sorrell said that Snapchat “is another important possibility in terms of balancing the marketplace,” arguing that “getting more than two solutions is important.”
Sorrell has previously noted that the current advertising boycotts of Google-owned YouTube “do not make sense,” which he expanded on Thursday:
You’re negating or withdrawing from… arguably one of the most powerful mediums, so why would you do that? Maybe you stop for a little bit, you pause, you wait and see and you improve the technology.
However, he has also been clear that Google and Facebook need to “step up” their fight against the inappropriate content on their platform:
With duopolistic control or influence comes responsibility, and last time I checked Google’s revenues and margins and Facebook’s revenues and margins, they were certainly, I look at them with some degree of envy, it’s true… With authority or position comes a responsibility, and they have got to step up and take responsibility.
Jack Hadfield is a student at the University of Warwick and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can like his page on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @ToryBastard_ or on Gab @JH.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.