The growth of user generated content creators and consumers isn’t being matched by growth in ad revenue. An eMarketer report from last week projected the number of ugc creators will grow from 83 million in 2008 to 108 million in 2012, while the number of ugc consumers will rise from 101 million in 2008 to 130 million in 2012.
Meanwhile, ugc ad revenue will jump from $162 million in 2007 to $824 million in 2012. While the percentage of growth is high, the dollar amount isn’t and eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna said, “Advertising revenues alongside this content will remain relatively modest. It will account for only 1.62 percent of U.S. online ad spending in 2012.
“The unpredictability of ugc is the main barrier to the emergence of a larger advertising market around this medium,” Verna said. “Another obstacle is the migration of ad dollars toward professional content on YouTube, MySpace, Joost and Hulu.”
eMarketer calculated its estimates of ugc ad spending as percentages of ad spending on online video and social networking sites. “The bulk of advertising activity around ugc occurs on video sharing sites like YouTube and social destinations like MySpace and Facebook. Related content categories like blogs and photo-sharing were not included because they account for a tiny fraction of overall ad spending against user-generated media,” it said.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More