At this stage in the social media game, MySpace must have known that Facebook's ad revenue would eventually eclipse its own. But it might have hoped to bury its head in the sand for just a little longer.
Yet, a year ahead of projections, Facebook is on track to reach $605 million in worldwide advertising revenue in 2010, while MySpace is likely to experience a decline in ad revenue of 21 percent, bringing its annual revenue to $385 million, according to eMarketer's "Social Network Ad Spending: 2010 Outlook."
Facebook's projected increase is likely the result of unexpected growth in the latter half of 2009, as the U.S. economy began to bounce back. But does this signal continued dominance of paid advertising in social media? eMarketer is somewhat bearish: "Marketers will continue to make social networks a priority for 2010, but a significant portion of their spending will go toward building and maintaining a social network presence," said the report. "Paid social network advertising will remain somewhat of an afterthought."
