The Wall Street Journal asks: Does the addition of Yahoo really help Verizon/AOL compete with Google and Facebook in digital advertising? Mike Shields asked marketers and ad buyers questions about the deal. One question: Can Verizon really compete with the giants of digital advertising? “From the outset, the math doesn’t work. According to eMarketer, Yahoo will claim 3.4% of the U.S. digital ad market this year, an even smaller slice of the pie than in years past. AOL? 1.8%. Compare that with Google at almost 39% and Facebook with 15%, and it doesn’t look like a fair fight. The disparity is even greater in mobile. Not that advertisers aren’t rooting for a viable No. 3 player to emerge. Given Google and Facebook’s dominance, ‘you really worry about balance,’ said Lou Paskalis, senior vice president and enterprise media executive at Bank of America. Mr. Paskalis said it would be ‘wonderful’ for Verizon to emerge as a true ‘third force.’ Yahoo provided ‘the cheapest, best scale available,’ he said.”
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