Internet Publishing, Broadcasting & Search Portals Industry Profile

The Internet publishing, broadcasting and search portal industry includes about 3,200 companies with combined annual revenue of about $40 billion. Major companies include Google, IAC, and Yahoo!. The industry is highly concentrated: the top 50 companies account for about 80 percent of revenue.

Global Internet publishing, broadcasting, and search companies cater to a potential customer base of about 2 billion Internet users worldwide, according to Internet World Stats. The largest percentage of Internet users reside in Asia (44 percent), followed by Europe (23 percent), North America (13 percent), Latin America and the Caribbean (10 percent), Africa (6 percent), the Middle East (3 percent), and Oceania/Australia (1 percent).

Companies that specialize in providing Internet access and Internet retail are covered in the Internet Service Providers and Internet and Catalog Retailers profiles, respectively.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is driven by consumer and business needs for information and entertainment. The profitability of individual companies depends on their ability to deliver relevant information to consumers and to offer advertisers desirable target markets. Large companies enjoy economies of scale in marketing and in their ability to develop and maintain multiple websites. Smaller companies can compete by focusing on niche markets. The industry is capital-intensive: average annual revenue per employee is about $450,000.

Companies in the Internet publishing and broadcasting and search portal industry compete with other publishers and broadcasters and with the Internet-related businesses of leading technology and entertainment ...