Omdia: in 2022, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Apple are on pace to take 68% of ~$500B in online ad revenue made by non-China companies, driven by video campaigns
TV and film companies are racing to capture some of the marketing cash pouring into the likes of YouTube Tweets: @astaniscia86 , @mattnavarra , and @c_valenzuelab Tweets: Giulio S. / @astaniscia86 : Online and TV companies are competing for the same ad dollars. Facebook is making more money from video-based advertising than any broadcaster does. https://www.ft.com/... https://twitter.com/... Matt Navarra / @mattnavarra : Video is the fastest growing area in online advertising By 2027, TikTok's advertising revenue is predicted to exceed that of Meta and YouTube combined. https://www.ft.com/... https://twitter.com/... @c_valenzuelab : Video is eating the world https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Omdia's 68%-of-$500B figure extends a concentration story the desk has tracked for years: GroupM counted the top five platforms claiming 46% of global ad revenue in 2020, up from 17% in 2010, and its 2021 tally put worldwide ad revenue at $763B with Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon controlling 80-90% of digital outside China.
What changed in 2022 is the driver: video. FactSet's Q1 survey already showed Google growing 23% YoY while Meta slowed to 8% (FactSet's Q1 ad-revenue survey), and the FT reporting notes video is the fastest-growing slice of online advertising — with TikTok forecast to out-earn Meta and YouTube combined by 2027.
First-order effects
- TV and film companies now bid against YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok for the same video budgets — and per the reporting, Facebook already earns more from video advertising than any broadcaster does.
- Apple's presence in the 68% alongside Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta marks it as a direct claimant on non-China online ad spend rather than a device-side bystander.
Second-order effects
- TikTok's projected 2027 crossover pressures Meta and YouTube to defend video budgets with shorter formats and creator supply, while broadcasters respond by building ad-supported streaming tiers to recapture dollars flowing to platforms like YouTube.
- Amazon's inclusion signals retail-media inventory joining search and social as a third pillar of the big-four share, giving brands fewer alternatives as budgets consolidate.
Third-order effects
- If the trajectory holds — GroupM's later forecast has the same five platforms taking over half of a $1T-plus market — ad-funded media structurally splits into a platform oligopoly and a content industry dependent on those platforms for distribution and demand.
- Concentration at this level makes the major platforms the de facto pricing setters for video attention, shifting bargaining power away from both broadcasters and advertisers toward whoever owns the audience data.
The trend: Online advertising is consolidating around a handful of video-first platforms whose share of non-China ad spend keeps climbing at the expense of traditional broadcasters.