Portals are getting bigger

The portal slice of the ad revenue pie is growing, not diminishing. This year, ad revenues at the four major portal sites (net of traffic acquisition costs) will account for fully two-thirds of total online ad spending, according to eMarketer.
eMarketer estimates that net U.S. ad revenues at Yahoo, AOL, MSN and Google accounted for 57.4 percent of the total Internet ad spend in 2006.

"As traditional marketers move more money online, they look for safety in established, mass-market brands, and portals are that," said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst. "Other than Google, the large portals are at least 10 years old, and all four average 100 million or more unique visitors monthly."

The top portals will increase U.S. net ad revenues in 2007, with nearly $13 billion going to just those four sites, up from $9.4 billion in 2006, according to eMarketer.