Twitter & LinkedIn Ad Revenue Set To Skyrocket For 2014

With an increasing focus on the development of brands and new and different revenue streams being explored, the big players in social media are set to cement their place online and become sustainable  businesses in their own right, and ensure that they will be protected if the bubble ever bursts.

Now Bloomberg are reporting that Twitter and LinkedIn are expecting their advertising revenue to increase dramatically over the coming years. According to the New York based research firm EMarketer, Twitter’s ad revenue is expected to rise to $540 million in 2014 in comparison to the $139.5 million it raised in 2011. Citing increasing popularity outside the U.S., the company’s reliance on the American market will decrease, with the precentage of dollars coming from there decreasing from 90% this year to 83% in 2014.

Also professional-networking site LinkedIn will see ad sales rise over the next few years, with their ad revenue growing from $154.6 million in 2011 to $405.6 million in 2014. Similar to Twitter, the site’s dependence on U.S. dollars will fall from 68% this year to 60% by 2014.

Both sites will be looking beyond their traditional methods of advertising, focusing on their unique qualities and demographic. Twitter, for example, will be placing an emphasis on political ads in line with the U.S. elections this year. Speaking at the AllThingsD’s Dive into Media conference, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo stated that they “have figured out the business…the advertising model is working”.

Twitter has hit trouble over recent days over its censorship policy and the option to block certain tweets. They defended themselves by stating that the new policy allows them to block tweets in specific countries and that originally, if a tweet had to be taken down, they would have to do so globally.