Google’s Ad Dominance Explained in Three Charts

By Patience Haggin and Kara Dapena

Google is the dominant player in online advertising, one reason the U.S. Justice Department is laying the groundwork for potential antitrust action against the tech giant. It has a 37% share of the $130 billion U.S. digital ad market, according to research firm eMarketer, but understanding Google’s full clout requires a deeper look at the sector.

Google is the major force at every layer between advertisers and websites, providing tools used in the many steps of purchasing and selling online ads—whether they are meant to run on Google’s own platforms or sites around the web. Critics say the company packages and prices its products in ways that thwart competition and allow it to take an unreasonably large cut of online ad transactions.

A Google spokesman declined to comment. The company is prepared to show U.S. regulators that while it has an enviable place in online advertising, it doesn’t have monopolistic pricing power, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The mainstay of Google’s business is search. It has close to 80% of the U.S. market for search ads, accounting for the bulk of its $116.3 billion in total ad revenue last year.

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