Worldwide, revenues at Facebook will
more than double from $2 billion in 2010 to $4.27 billion in 2011, according to new eMarketer estimates.
Making all the difference, Facebook is expected to earn $3.8 billion in advertising
revenue this year -- up 104% from $1.86 billion in 2010, eMarketer predicts. Indeed, while ads represented an estimated 95% of Facebook's total revenue in 2009, the channel is expected to fall to 89%
of total revenue this year.
Revenue from Facebook Credits, by contrast, will grow to 11% of the company's total revenues in 2011 -- compared to 7% in 2010.
"Facebook's revenue streams
will continue to diversify, with ads representing a decreasing proportion of total revenue while other sources, such as Facebook Credits, will grow," according to Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer
principal analyst. "While still key to Facebook's business model, advertising is slowly losing ground to other revenue streams."
Overall, revenues from Facebook Credits program is expected
to reach $470 million in 2011 -- up from $140 million last year. eMarketer estimates that Facebook will slightly surpass earlier expectations next year -- earning an estimated $5.78 billion worldwide
in ad revenue that year.
In the U.S., Facebook is expected to earn $2.01 billion in ad revenues in 2011, the company predicts. The company's share of the $12.33 billion U.S. display ad market
will reach 16.3% in 2011.
Also of note, eMarketer's estimates for U.S. display ad revenue at Google, Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo were not affected by this forecast.
This is the first time
eMarketer has published an estimate for overall revenues at Facebook and provided an estimate for the company's earnings from Credits.
eMarketer forms its estimates for advertising spending on
Facebook through a meta-analysis of estimates of consumer usage, marketer usage, ad pricing and impressions on Facebook. It also tallies revenue estimates from research firms and other sources.