Twitter Will Sell More Display Ads Than Yahoo In 2015: Report

For digital advertising, the odds are in favor of social networks. In 2015, Twitter Inc., for the first time, will beat Yahoo Inc. in total digital display ad revenues, meaning advertising on desktop and mobile, in the U.S.

A recent forecast from research group eMarketer predicts that Twitter will report $1.34 billion in digital display ad revenue, while Yahoo is expected to reach $1.24 billion this year. That puts Twitter at the third highest, behind Facebook and Google, in the $27.05 billion market, eMarketer reports.

Yahoo was the leader in U.S. display until 2011, when both Google and Facebook blew past it. Now, more dollars are being directed to social networks, where advertisers are attracted to consumer engagement and the companies’ data collection and ad targeting, said Martin Utreras, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer, in the report.

Yahoo is not completely falling behind, however. The Internet giant is expected to see positive display ad growth, yet the company will continue to lose market share. For 2017, eMarketer predicts that Facebook and Twitter will comprise over a third, 33.7 percent, of the market share for digital display ads in the U.S.

In its latest earnings call, Twitter reported strong revenue growth, beating analysts’ expectations. The social network, with 288 million monthly active users, hit $1.4 billion in revenue for 2014. Concern still lingers, however, on its slowing user growth.