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A new report claims Alphabet and Meta hold a ‘duopoly’ in Ireland’s digital advertising sector, but predicts that TikTok will be a ‘key driver’ of growth in social media advertising.
Ireland’s media market managed to grow last year despite volatile macroeconomic conditions, while digital advertising remains the dominant sector.
That’s according to a new report from marketing communications company Core, which claims Ireland’s media market grew by 4.6pc to approximately €1.47bn. The report expects this growth to continue in 2024, with a prediction that Ireland’s total media market will grow to more than €1.53bn this year.
Digital advertising spend grew by more than 9pc last year and took the lion’s share of Ireland’s advertising, representing more than 64pc of overall advertising revenue in Ireland. Core said this sector continues to be dominated by the large tech companies such as Alphabet and Meta.
“We estimate that the duopoly accounted for 79pc of the total digital spend in 2023 and this is likely to be a similar figure in 2024,” the report said.
The largest category for growth was social media, which is in line with previous reports according to Core. This sector grew by 12.7pc last year to more than €414m. Video was the second largest growth category, as it grew by more than 10pc to roughly €450m.
The Core report predicts that social media and video investment will once again be the largest categories for growth, increasing by 13.5pc and 10.4pc respectively this year. It also predicts that TikTok will be the “key driver of growth” in the social media sector.
“We forecast that media spend with TikTok will increase by 42pc in 2024,” the report said. “We estimate it will account for circa 13pc of social media spend. This compares to a global share estimate of 20pc in 2024.”
Meanwhile, the report expects the impact of AI on the news sector to become “clearer” in 2024, due to its potential impact on elections. The report also claimed that the recent Dublin riots show that “tech companies are losing the battle when it comes to both misinformation and disinformation”.
“AI algorithms prioritising views over verified content could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for the Irish consumer and, as was seen during the Covid period, push people towards more trusted content,” the Core report said.
Last year, a PwC report claimed that Ireland’s entertainment and media industry will add €1bn in revenue by 2027 thanks to an increased reliance on mobile and digital technologies.
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