Facebook Continues to Add to Share of Online Advertising

Facebook (News - Alert) continues to grow and grow and grow … as I wrote last week, questioning whether an inconveniencing five-hour shortage is a really a nuisance for the social-networking mogul.

Most recently it was reported that Goldman Sachs, the global investment banking and securities firm, invested $450 million in the hot social networking firm. Goldman is aiming to raise as much as $1.5 billion from its wealthy clients to invest in Facebook, posing Facebook as an unstoppable social networking source.

And here it is, another week, and Facebook is making headlines again with its growth in its share of online advertising. Facebook received 4.7 percent of the U.S. online ad market in 2010, which will grow 7.8  percent in 2011, with the addition of an estimated $1 billion in U.S. ad revenues to its 2010 base, according to eMarketer. It is estimated that Facebook will reach $4.05 billion worldwide in ad spending in 2011, and by 2012 it is expected to be up 42 percent from 2011.

Debra Aho Williamson, a principal analyst for social media, said in a statement, “2010 was the year that Facebook firmly established itself as a major force, not only in social network advertising, but all of online advertising…  If Facebook can continue to increase its global user base and boost the amount of revenue it generates per user, it could even surpass these forecasts… Facebook must continue to innovate its user experience and its ad platform.”

Facebook has a never-ending amount of plans and innovations to continue its growth in the social-networking realm. As TMC’s (News - Alert) Susan Campbell reported in December, Facebook wants to serve as an e-commerce site and to grab the attention of retailers everywhere it is ramping up its efforts. According to a Businessweek report, the social networking giant would like to convert its users to online shoppers. Managers for the company have met with more than 20 different retailers and other companies in order to help them set up shop on its pages and build tools that will enable Web users to interact, while making purchases.

It’s a Facebook world. Are you a part of it?