MAM
Adspend: Twitter fastest growing, FB & Google control 20%
MUMBAI: Google and Facebook together accounted for 20% of global advertising expenditure across all media in 2016, up from 11% in 2012, according to the new edition of Zenith’s Top Thirty Global Media Owners. These two companies captured 64% of all the growth in global adspend between 2012 and 2016.
The Top Thirty Global Media Owners report is Zenith’s unique ranking of the world’s largest media companies, and is being published since 2007. For this edition, it has decided to update its methodology and focus purely on media owners’ revenues from advertising, excluding revenues from all other activities, which gives the true measure of their status in the global advertising market.
Google (under its holding company Alphabet) is by some distance the largest media owner in the world, attracting US$79.4bn in ad revenue in 2016, three times more than the second-largest – Facebook – which attracted US$26.9bn. The largest traditional media owner is Comcast, which takes third place in our ranking, with US$12.9bn in ad revenue.
As we stated in our quarterly Advertising Expenditure Forecasts, internet advertising has overtaken television to become the world’s largest advertising medium this year. Accordingly, digital platforms that are funded by internet advertising dominate our top 30 ranking. As well as Alphabet and Facebook, there are five more pure-internet media owners in the top 30: Baidu, Microsoft, Yahoo, Verizon and Twitter. Between them, the seven digital platforms generated US$132.8bn in internet ad revenue in 2016 – that’s 73% of all internet adspend, and 24% of global adspend across all media.
Verizon became a media owner in 2015 when it bought AOL, and if all goes to plan will become a much larger one when it acquires Yahoo later this year. Verizon takes 21st place in our current ranking; adding Yahoo to AOL would boost it to sixth.
The fastest-growing media owner in our list is Twitter, which increased its ad revenues by 734% between 2012 and 2016. Tencent is second, having grown by 697% over this period, and Facebook is third, with 528% growth. Two other media owners have more than doubled in size between 2012 and 2016: Baidu, which grew 190%, and Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which grew 171%.
Most of the media owners in our ranking – 20 out of 30 – are based in the US. The US dominates for several reasons: the US has the biggest ad market, US companies have invested the most in extending their reach abroad, and Silicon Valley innovation has powered the growth of internet advertising. China and Germany each have three media owners in the ranking (Baidu, Tencent and CCTV for China, and Bertelsmann, ProSiebenSat.1 and Axel Springer for Germany). Then there are four countries with one media owners each: France (JCDecaux), Brazil (Grupo Globo), Italy (Mediaset) and the UK (ITV).
“The scale of the biggest platforms highlights the importance of building strong partnerships between agencies and media owners,” said Vittorio Bonori, Zenith’s Global Brand President. “Brands need to deal with these platforms to communicate with consumers effectively and efficiently, and agencies need to ensure they do so on the best terms available.”
“Zenith’s new ranking demonstrates just how much the internet advertising platforms are setting the pace for global adspend growth,” said Jonathan Barnard, Head of Forecasting at Zenith. “Google and Facebook alone have accounted for almost two thirds of global adspend growth since 2012.”
Ranking of Top 30 Global Media Owners 2017
Brands
Emami names Dhruv Aggarwal as chief growth officer
Former Bain partner steps in as FMCG firm sharpens growth playbook
MUMBAI: Emami Limited has appointed Dhruv Aggarwal as its chief growth officer, effective 25 March 2026, following the resignation of Giriraj Bagri.
Aggarwal joins the FMCG major from Bain & Company, where he most recently served as partner. With over two decades of experience across consulting and strategy, he brings a global perspective shaped by work across India, the US, the UK and Germany.
During his tenure at Bain, Aggarwal advised consumer, retail and media companies on large-scale transformations, business turnarounds and growth strategies. He was also closely involved with India’s startup ecosystem, guiding early-stage ventures on scaling and digital expansion, while supporting private equity and venture capital firms on investment decisions.
His earlier stints include a brief role at Barclays Capital and operational experience at Jindal Power, giving him a mix of financial and industry exposure.
Academically, Aggarwal holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and has also been associated with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as a PhD candidate and teaching assistant.
The appointment comes at a time when Emami Limited is looking to sharpen its growth strategy in a competitive consumer market. With a seasoned strategist now at the helm of growth, the company appears set to double down on transformation and expansion in the months ahead.
