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The top news from last week was Intel (INTC - Free Report) buying Mobileye for $15 billion, but Pandora’s Premium tier, Nintendo’s success with the Switch and other news also made headlines.
Here are the top stories from last week:
Intel Buys Mobileye
Intel paid $15 billion for Mobileye that some analysts thought was a huge price tag, especially since it generates revenue of around $350 million only and Intel was anyway already in collaboration with the autonomous technology provider. But given its strong relationships with automakers and design win pipeline, the possibility for deeper collaboration, lower cost of development and other cost synergies as a result of the acquisition, it may be just what Intel needed to battle the rapidly growing competition.
Also, Mobileye’s maps and data are of strategic value, not only because they are important building blocks of self-driving technology, but also because they will increase the value of Intel’s solutions.
Pandora Launches On-Demand Music Service
Pandora has launched its long-awaited on-demand music streaming service called Pandora Premium for $9.99 a month, similar to other services like Spotify and Apple Music.
The company’s has a tiered service, starting with Pandora, an ad-supported free radio service that allows you to create “stations” based on your preferred artists, songs on genres with Pandora curating the playlist. This is followed by the $5 a month Pandora Plus, which is ad-free, but has limited freedoms in the form of track replay, offline listening (3 most-played stations), etc.
Pandora Premium offers all this plus the ability to search and play songs on-demand, no timeouts, fully customizable playlists and more offline listening options. What’s more, it comes with an Rdio-like streaming interface that was popular with customers until that company was acquired by Pandora.
Pandora has 20 million customers, significantly higher than both Spotify and Apple Music, but while those services are growing strongly, Pandora isn’t doing as well, resulting in growing losses year upon year. The just-launched Premium service may not be a runaway success because those looking for such a service have most likely shifted to one of the other services. So if Pandora is to get back in the game, it has to differentiate, or find a way to lure new users the way Apple did. Human curation and artificial intelligence to improve discovery could do the trick, so Pandora is going that route. But will it succeed? We’ll have to wait and see.
Nintendo’s Switch Is on a Roll
At launch, Nintendo expected to sell 2 million units of its new Switch game console in the first month. IDC analyst Lewis Ward estimated 8 million units in the first year. But fresh reports from the WSJ, which talked to people with knowledge of the matter, say that in its new fiscal year starting in April, its assemblers are planning to manufacture 16 million more units.
The strength in demand across Europe (in a seasonally weak period), the Americas and Japan stems from record sales of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the new features.
The WSJ says that this likely means that the company will sell around 10 million units, arousing the interest of game developers to produce more games for the device. Nintendo officials have also said that the console may in the future stream content from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and the like although gaming is the focal point for now. This is really good news for the console maker, which had a failed product in the Wii U (the earlier generation console that launched in 2012).
The $300 Switch manages a tabletop mode while also doubling as a portable handheld (for around six hours at a time anyway) and including a docking station for using the TV screen. The table top version allows you to detach the Joy Con controllers so two can play a game. The goal for the Kyoto-based company is to reach the largest number of gamers whether they are serious, casual or just starting out. In this respect, it may be slightly limited because it supports fewer games than the competing XB1 and PS4 although it’s still a larger spread than the Wii U.
JP Morgan analyst Haruka More says: "We expect acceleration in its sales momentum toward end-2017 driven by Splatoon 2, scheduled launching this summer."
Other stories
Corporate
Apple R&D Centers in China: In addition to Beijing and Shenzhen, Apple (AAPL - Free Report) has said that it will now open two more R&D centers in Shanghai and Suzhou, in line with its China R&D investment target of 3.5 billion yuan ($507.1 million). Apple is on slippery ground in China as the battle with local players is full on and the U.S. government’s China policies can increase its problems with the Chinese government.
LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman Joins Microsoft Board: Co-founder, ex-CEO and ex-executive chairman of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman is joining Microsoft’s (MSFT) board three months after its acquisition by the Windows maker. His role in the position, as defined by Hoffman himself is: "continue to focus on helping LinkedIn fulfill its mission of increasing the economic productivity of individual professionals and the companies they work for… I'll also contribute more broadly as Microsoft deepens its presence in Silicon Valley and continues to weave social, AI, and other technologies into [its] products."
Google-Facebook Data Highway: The highest-capacity internet link between Asia and the U.S. is about to be constructed by Chinese real estate magnate Wei Junkang’s Pacific Light Data Communication Co (60% share), Facebook (20%) and Google (20%). American contractor TE SubCom will lay the 17-millimeter wide, 12,800-kilometer-long cable, which will in all probability be operational by late 2018.
Legal/Regulatory
Google, Facebook Battle Hate Speech in Europe: In Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) -owned Google’s case, the problem was in the UK, where government ads didn’t appear in a desired way. According to the government, "Google is responsible for ensuring the high standards applied to government advertising are adhered to and that adverts do not appear alongside inappropriate content… We have placed a temporary restriction on our YouTube advertising pending reassurances from Google that government messages can be delivered in a safe and appropriate way.”
In Germany, the government praised Google’s YouTube for deleting 90% of flagged illegal content, while pulling up social networks like Facebook because “Too little illegal content is deleted, it’s not deleted quickly enough and it looks like the operators of social networks aren’t taking their users seriously enough.” Under the draft proposal of new legislation being framed, the government promised fines of up to 50 million euros ($53 million) for failing to give users the option to complain about hate speech and fake news or refusing to remove illegal content
Pakistan Wants Tech Help on Blasphemy: Pakistan wants to crack down on Pakistanis living in Pakistan or abroad who have shared material deemed blasphemous against Islam or the Prophet Muhammad. Facebook has said, "We disclose information about accounts solely in accordance with our terms of service and applicable law. A Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty or other formal request may be required for international requests, and we include these in our Government Requests Report." Twitter has yet to respond.
Tech Companies Support Google’s Fight with FBI: Apple, Cisco, Amazon and Microsoft filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Google in a case where it is seeking to overturn the order of a lower court to turn over to the FBI certain data stored on servers in other countries. They said, “So bold a projection of U.S. law enforcement power into foreign countries would show disdain for their sovereignty and threaten to disrupt the harmony existing between the United States and other nations.” There is a precedent in this case: Microsoft won a similar case against the FBI, which wanted to see emails of a foreign national stored on an Irish server.
Alphabet Adds to Case Against Uber: Alphabet’s Waymo just added a fourth patent that it says was infringed upon by Uber and furnished further details including the statement of an eye-witness in a new filing on Friday. The statement is from Pierre-Yves Droz, a former colleague and close confidant of Levandowski's (the ex-Googler who has allegedly run off with Waymo self-driving technology and trade secrets to form self-driving trucking company Otto, which was subsequently bought by Uber for $680 million).
The lawsuit specifies the time at which Levandowski met Uber executives in Jan 2016, registering the company that would become Otto the following day. Waymo is now seeking an injunction to prevent Uber from using the technology in its self-driving vehicles and seeking damages for any proven infringements.
New Technology/Products
Microsoft Teams: Since its official preview in November last year, Microsoft has added more than 100 new features to the group communication and collaboration service, including things like scheduling capabilities; mobile audio calling, with video calling on Android now and coming soon to iOS and Windows Phone; email integration; and new security and compliance capabilities.
Last week, the company rolled out Teams as part of Office 365 across 181 markets and in 19 languages. It’s also said that more than 50K organizations have started using Microsoft Teams, including Alaska Airlines, Cerner Corporation, ConocoPhillips, Deloitte, Expedia, J.B. Hunt, J. Walter Thompson, Hendrick Motorsports, Sage, Trek Bicycle and Three UK.
Google Voice Ads Test: "By the way, Disney's live action Beauty and the Beast opens today," the Google Home smart speaker told people after giving them the time, weather and travel update as part of its “My Day” feature. Google said it wasn’t an ad but speculation is running rife as everyone tries to figure out Google’s monetization strategy for Home. "We're continuing to experiment with new ways to surface unique content for users and we could have done better in this case," Google said by way of explanation.
Google Tries “Offensive”: Similar to Facebook’s “disputed” tag, Google has decided to create groups called review teams to flag content they deem "upsetting-offensive." Some of the criteria Google’s using to flag content would make you smile: "high-quality" pages could be the home page of a newspaper that has "won seven Pulitzer Prize awards," and "low-quality" pages could be articles that include "many grammar and punctuation errors." Thankfully, the results will still show up, but with the flag.
Google Payments Through Gmail: Google is extending the peer-to-peer payments service for Gmail users to the Gmail app for Android. Clicking on the attachments tab will now also throw up options to send or receive money with the funds then being transferred from one bank account to the other. The service will be directly pitted against PayPal’s Venmo (although without its social aspect) and SquareCash.
M&A and Collaborations
Sky, Cisco Combine for OnPrime TV: The two have developed a new innovative app-based streaming service called OnPrime TV that will allow consumers in the UK, Italy and Germany to access popular foreign language film, television and news channels in one place. The app can be downloaded via the app store on Apple TV4 and is coming to other devices and other European countries soon. All channel packs offer a 30-day free trial, and range in price from £8.99 to £17.99 a month.
Alibaba-Govt of Denmark: Alibaba Group (BABA - Free Report) Executive Vice-Chairman Joseph Tsai and Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Anders Samuelsen witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that will increase exports from Denmark to China and see the Chinese company promote Denmark as a tourist destination for Chinese travelers. Alibaba’s reach (440 million annual active buyers) makes it an attractive platform for foreign advertisers and sellers even through it isn’t perfect in terms of curbing counterfeits.
Alibaba’s Tmall Global has developed country pavilions to familiarize Chinese customers with a true essence of the country in question and help them identify authenticity. The Danish pavilion will have more than 20 brands selling high-quality Danish products in the fashion, lifestyle, home and food categories for starters.
Twitter Inks Deal with National Lacrosse League: Twitter has signed a two-year deal that will see it broadcast one game a week with the National Lacrosse League (NLL). Twitter will also live stream the NLL’s playoffs and show highlights. The games will also be aired on NLL’s video subscription service called NLLTV.com. This isn’t of course in the same league as the NFL, NHL, professional boxing and eSports that Twitter dealt with earlier, but it’s evidence that the deals continue to trickle in. But the NLL doesn’t have a broadcast TV partner, so this is a big deal from its perspective.
NVIDIA Self-Driving Partnerships: At the ConnectedWorld event in Berlin, Germany, NVIDIA announced a couple of autonomous driving partnerships with the world’s largest auto parts supplier Bosch and popular trucking company PACCAR. The companies will be using NVIDIA’s artificial intelligence-powered Drive PX AI technology to develop self-driving cars and trucks.
Google-Levi’s: Google’s Project Jaquard, which combines thin, metallic alloys with natural and synthetic yarns to create touch-sensitive interactive fabrics is finally inside smart jackets from Levi’s. The jackets, which will allow you to skip songs, use Google maps and make phone calls by the brush of your sleeve, will sell for $350 from this fall.
Some Numbers
Amazon Cash Rewards: Alexa has been steadily adding “skills” or apps that make it more useful for developers and from last week, owners can ask it to deliver one of the three recently-ordered meals from GrubHub. They just have to say something like, “Alexa, tell GrubHub I’m hungry”, to which Alexa will respond with the options to choose from. Also from last week, Alexa can get iRobot’s Roomba robot to start cleaning your house and give you detailed reports about the job done, time taken etc.
So to add to the fun, Amazon decided to make it easier for developers to do more with Alexa by giving them cash rewards. They get a $100 AWS promotional credit and an additional $100 per month in AWS credits if they incur usage charges for their skill. So Amazon basically takes care of app development and hosting until they’ve made enough themselves to be happy.
Google, Facebook Lead in Digital Ads: According to eMarketer’s latest forecast, U.S. digital ad spending will increase 16% this year to $83 billion with Google and Facebook claiming the largest share by virtue of their strength in search and display, respectively. Google’s overall share of digital ad spending will be 40.7% this year while Facebook’s will be over 19%.
Facebook is expected to continue growing much faster than Google off a smaller base. Google will dominate in search with a 78% share and Facebook in display with a 39% share. Twitter, which derives 89% of its total ad revenue from mobile, will for the first time see mobile ad revenue shrink, by 5%. Snapchat, which commands just 1.2% of the total U.S. mobile ad market, and just 4% of the total growth in U.S. digital advertising, will grow its ad revenue by 158% to $770 million.
Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars?
Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.
With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.
Image: Bigstock
Tech Roundup: Intel Buys Mobileye, Pandora Launches Premium
The top news from last week was Intel (INTC - Free Report) buying Mobileye for $15 billion, but Pandora’s Premium tier, Nintendo’s success with the Switch and other news also made headlines.
Here are the top stories from last week:
Intel Buys Mobileye
Intel paid $15 billion for Mobileye that some analysts thought was a huge price tag, especially since it generates revenue of around $350 million only and Intel was anyway already in collaboration with the autonomous technology provider. But given its strong relationships with automakers and design win pipeline, the possibility for deeper collaboration, lower cost of development and other cost synergies as a result of the acquisition, it may be just what Intel needed to battle the rapidly growing competition.
Also, Mobileye’s maps and data are of strategic value, not only because they are important building blocks of self-driving technology, but also because they will increase the value of Intel’s solutions.
Pandora Launches On-Demand Music Service
Pandora has launched its long-awaited on-demand music streaming service called Pandora Premium for $9.99 a month, similar to other services like Spotify and Apple Music.
The company’s has a tiered service, starting with Pandora, an ad-supported free radio service that allows you to create “stations” based on your preferred artists, songs on genres with Pandora curating the playlist. This is followed by the $5 a month Pandora Plus, which is ad-free, but has limited freedoms in the form of track replay, offline listening (3 most-played stations), etc.
Pandora Premium offers all this plus the ability to search and play songs on-demand, no timeouts, fully customizable playlists and more offline listening options. What’s more, it comes with an Rdio-like streaming interface that was popular with customers until that company was acquired by Pandora.
Pandora has 20 million customers, significantly higher than both Spotify and Apple Music, but while those services are growing strongly, Pandora isn’t doing as well, resulting in growing losses year upon year. The just-launched Premium service may not be a runaway success because those looking for such a service have most likely shifted to one of the other services. So if Pandora is to get back in the game, it has to differentiate, or find a way to lure new users the way Apple did. Human curation and artificial intelligence to improve discovery could do the trick, so Pandora is going that route. But will it succeed? We’ll have to wait and see.
Nintendo’s Switch Is on a Roll
At launch, Nintendo expected to sell 2 million units of its new Switch game console in the first month. IDC analyst Lewis Ward estimated 8 million units in the first year. But fresh reports from the WSJ, which talked to people with knowledge of the matter, say that in its new fiscal year starting in April, its assemblers are planning to manufacture 16 million more units.
The strength in demand across Europe (in a seasonally weak period), the Americas and Japan stems from record sales of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the new features.
The WSJ says that this likely means that the company will sell around 10 million units, arousing the interest of game developers to produce more games for the device. Nintendo officials have also said that the console may in the future stream content from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and the like although gaming is the focal point for now. This is really good news for the console maker, which had a failed product in the Wii U (the earlier generation console that launched in 2012).
The $300 Switch manages a tabletop mode while also doubling as a portable handheld (for around six hours at a time anyway) and including a docking station for using the TV screen. The table top version allows you to detach the Joy Con controllers so two can play a game. The goal for the Kyoto-based company is to reach the largest number of gamers whether they are serious, casual or just starting out. In this respect, it may be slightly limited because it supports fewer games than the competing XB1 and PS4 although it’s still a larger spread than the Wii U.
JP Morgan analyst Haruka More says: "We expect acceleration in its sales momentum toward end-2017 driven by Splatoon 2, scheduled launching this summer."
Other stories
Corporate
Apple R&D Centers in China: In addition to Beijing and Shenzhen, Apple (AAPL - Free Report) has said that it will now open two more R&D centers in Shanghai and Suzhou, in line with its China R&D investment target of 3.5 billion yuan ($507.1 million). Apple is on slippery ground in China as the battle with local players is full on and the U.S. government’s China policies can increase its problems with the Chinese government.
LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman Joins Microsoft Board: Co-founder, ex-CEO and ex-executive chairman of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman is joining Microsoft’s (MSFT) board three months after its acquisition by the Windows maker. His role in the position, as defined by Hoffman himself is: "continue to focus on helping LinkedIn fulfill its mission of increasing the economic productivity of individual professionals and the companies they work for… I'll also contribute more broadly as Microsoft deepens its presence in Silicon Valley and continues to weave social, AI, and other technologies into [its] products."
Google-Facebook Data Highway: The highest-capacity internet link between Asia and the U.S. is about to be constructed by Chinese real estate magnate Wei Junkang’s Pacific Light Data Communication Co (60% share), Facebook (20%) and Google (20%). American contractor TE SubCom will lay the 17-millimeter wide, 12,800-kilometer-long cable, which will in all probability be operational by late 2018.
Legal/Regulatory
Google, Facebook Battle Hate Speech in Europe: In Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) -owned Google’s case, the problem was in the UK, where government ads didn’t appear in a desired way. According to the government, "Google is responsible for ensuring the high standards applied to government advertising are adhered to and that adverts do not appear alongside inappropriate content… We have placed a temporary restriction on our YouTube advertising pending reassurances from Google that government messages can be delivered in a safe and appropriate way.”
In Germany, the government praised Google’s YouTube for deleting 90% of flagged illegal content, while pulling up social networks like Facebook because “Too little illegal content is deleted, it’s not deleted quickly enough and it looks like the operators of social networks aren’t taking their users seriously enough.” Under the draft proposal of new legislation being framed, the government promised fines of up to 50 million euros ($53 million) for failing to give users the option to complain about hate speech and fake news or refusing to remove illegal content
Pakistan Wants Tech Help on Blasphemy: Pakistan wants to crack down on Pakistanis living in Pakistan or abroad who have shared material deemed blasphemous against Islam or the Prophet Muhammad. Facebook has said, "We disclose information about accounts solely in accordance with our terms of service and applicable law. A Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty or other formal request may be required for international requests, and we include these in our Government Requests Report." Twitter has yet to respond.
Tech Companies Support Google’s Fight with FBI: Apple, Cisco, Amazon and Microsoft filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Google in a case where it is seeking to overturn the order of a lower court to turn over to the FBI certain data stored on servers in other countries. They said, “So bold a projection of U.S. law enforcement power into foreign countries would show disdain for their sovereignty and threaten to disrupt the harmony existing between the United States and other nations.” There is a precedent in this case: Microsoft won a similar case against the FBI, which wanted to see emails of a foreign national stored on an Irish server.
Alphabet Adds to Case Against Uber: Alphabet’s Waymo just added a fourth patent that it says was infringed upon by Uber and furnished further details including the statement of an eye-witness in a new filing on Friday. The statement is from Pierre-Yves Droz, a former colleague and close confidant of Levandowski's (the ex-Googler who has allegedly run off with Waymo self-driving technology and trade secrets to form self-driving trucking company Otto, which was subsequently bought by Uber for $680 million).
The lawsuit specifies the time at which Levandowski met Uber executives in Jan 2016, registering the company that would become Otto the following day. Waymo is now seeking an injunction to prevent Uber from using the technology in its self-driving vehicles and seeking damages for any proven infringements.
New Technology/Products
Microsoft Teams: Since its official preview in November last year, Microsoft has added more than 100 new features to the group communication and collaboration service, including things like scheduling capabilities; mobile audio calling, with video calling on Android now and coming soon to iOS and Windows Phone; email integration; and new security and compliance capabilities.
Last week, the company rolled out Teams as part of Office 365 across 181 markets and in 19 languages. It’s also said that more than 50K organizations have started using Microsoft Teams, including Alaska Airlines, Cerner Corporation, ConocoPhillips, Deloitte, Expedia, J.B. Hunt, J. Walter Thompson, Hendrick Motorsports, Sage, Trek Bicycle and Three UK.
Google Voice Ads Test: "By the way, Disney's live action Beauty and the Beast opens today," the Google Home smart speaker told people after giving them the time, weather and travel update as part of its “My Day” feature. Google said it wasn’t an ad but speculation is running rife as everyone tries to figure out Google’s monetization strategy for Home. "We're continuing to experiment with new ways to surface unique content for users and we could have done better in this case," Google said by way of explanation.
Google Tries “Offensive”: Similar to Facebook’s “disputed” tag, Google has decided to create groups called review teams to flag content they deem "upsetting-offensive." Some of the criteria Google’s using to flag content would make you smile: "high-quality" pages could be the home page of a newspaper that has "won seven Pulitzer Prize awards," and "low-quality" pages could be articles that include "many grammar and punctuation errors." Thankfully, the results will still show up, but with the flag.
Google Payments Through Gmail: Google is extending the peer-to-peer payments service for Gmail users to the Gmail app for Android. Clicking on the attachments tab will now also throw up options to send or receive money with the funds then being transferred from one bank account to the other. The service will be directly pitted against PayPal’s Venmo (although without its social aspect) and SquareCash.
M&A and Collaborations
Sky, Cisco Combine for OnPrime TV: The two have developed a new innovative app-based streaming service called OnPrime TV that will allow consumers in the UK, Italy and Germany to access popular foreign language film, television and news channels in one place. The app can be downloaded via the app store on Apple TV4 and is coming to other devices and other European countries soon. All channel packs offer a 30-day free trial, and range in price from £8.99 to £17.99 a month.
Alibaba-Govt of Denmark: Alibaba Group (BABA - Free Report) Executive Vice-Chairman Joseph Tsai and Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Anders Samuelsen witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that will increase exports from Denmark to China and see the Chinese company promote Denmark as a tourist destination for Chinese travelers. Alibaba’s reach (440 million annual active buyers) makes it an attractive platform for foreign advertisers and sellers even through it isn’t perfect in terms of curbing counterfeits.
Alibaba’s Tmall Global has developed country pavilions to familiarize Chinese customers with a true essence of the country in question and help them identify authenticity. The Danish pavilion will have more than 20 brands selling high-quality Danish products in the fashion, lifestyle, home and food categories for starters.
Twitter Inks Deal with National Lacrosse League: Twitter has signed a two-year deal that will see it broadcast one game a week with the National Lacrosse League (NLL). Twitter will also live stream the NLL’s playoffs and show highlights. The games will also be aired on NLL’s video subscription service called NLLTV.com. This isn’t of course in the same league as the NFL, NHL, professional boxing and eSports that Twitter dealt with earlier, but it’s evidence that the deals continue to trickle in. But the NLL doesn’t have a broadcast TV partner, so this is a big deal from its perspective.
NVIDIA Self-Driving Partnerships: At the ConnectedWorld event in Berlin, Germany, NVIDIA announced a couple of autonomous driving partnerships with the world’s largest auto parts supplier Bosch and popular trucking company PACCAR. The companies will be using NVIDIA’s artificial intelligence-powered Drive PX AI technology to develop self-driving cars and trucks.
Google-Levi’s: Google’s Project Jaquard, which combines thin, metallic alloys with natural and synthetic yarns to create touch-sensitive interactive fabrics is finally inside smart jackets from Levi’s. The jackets, which will allow you to skip songs, use Google maps and make phone calls by the brush of your sleeve, will sell for $350 from this fall.
Some Numbers
Amazon Cash Rewards: Alexa has been steadily adding “skills” or apps that make it more useful for developers and from last week, owners can ask it to deliver one of the three recently-ordered meals from GrubHub. They just have to say something like, “Alexa, tell GrubHub I’m hungry”, to which Alexa will respond with the options to choose from. Also from last week, Alexa can get iRobot’s Roomba robot to start cleaning your house and give you detailed reports about the job done, time taken etc.
So to add to the fun, Amazon decided to make it easier for developers to do more with Alexa by giving them cash rewards. They get a $100 AWS promotional credit and an additional $100 per month in AWS credits if they incur usage charges for their skill. So Amazon basically takes care of app development and hosting until they’ve made enough themselves to be happy.
Google, Facebook Lead in Digital Ads: According to eMarketer’s latest forecast, U.S. digital ad spending will increase 16% this year to $83 billion with Google and Facebook claiming the largest share by virtue of their strength in search and display, respectively. Google’s overall share of digital ad spending will be 40.7% this year while Facebook’s will be over 19%.
Facebook is expected to continue growing much faster than Google off a smaller base. Google will dominate in search with a 78% share and Facebook in display with a 39% share. Twitter, which derives 89% of its total ad revenue from mobile, will for the first time see mobile ad revenue shrink, by 5%. Snapchat, which commands just 1.2% of the total U.S. mobile ad market, and just 4% of the total growth in U.S. digital advertising, will grow its ad revenue by 158% to $770 million.
Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars?
Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.
With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.
It's not the one you think.
See This Ticker Free >>