Google the world’s largest media owner; now boasts media revenues that are 39 per cent higher than its nearest competitor, DirectTV

June 7, 2013 Leave a comment

Google the world’s largest media owner

By Roziana Hamsawi

Published: 2013/06/07

DESPITE the rise of digital media, the majority of media revenues are generated by traditional media and entertainment companies that create and distribute content.

According to ZenithOptimedia’s top 30 Global Media Owners report, of the 30 companies, 22 are those whose main business is to attract audiences with strong content.
Strong content remains fundamental to generating media revenues, said Jonathan Barnard, ZenithOptimedia head of forecasting. The report showed that six of the top 10 media owners are content producers, including third-placed News Corporation and fourth-placed Disney.  It also showed that Google is now the world’s largest media owner.

The search and digital advertising giant moves up from second position and now boasts media revenues that are 39 per cent higher than its nearest competitor, DirectTV.

The report is a unique ranking of the world’s largest media companies by media revenue, as estimated by ZenithOptimedia.

Based on the report, the four Internet media owners – Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo – generated US$49.2 billion (RM152.03 billion) in revenue from Internet advertising in 2011, out of the total of US$77 billion spent on Internet advertising worldwide.

“Google’s position as the number one global media owner is testatement not only to its strength in search, but also to its expansion into other key digital platforms,” he said.

Barnard added that ZenithOptimedia’s top 30 ranking now includes four digital media owners and it is expecting another one by next year.

“We also expect more media owners from China and other rising markets to join the two Latin American media owners in the top 30,” he said.

Since ZenithOptimedia last published its ranking in 2010, five companies have entered the ranks of the top 30, namely Facebook, Microsoft, Globo from Brazil and ProSiebenSat.1 and Sanoma, both of whom are European companies.

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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