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The Digital Advertising Gap: Juggernauts of Digital Capitalism and the Global Economy of Scale

This paper looks at the digital advertising gap or the difference between the total amount of publicly declared internet advertising spending by companies based in Croatia, and the data on total income of digital media companies registered in Croatia. The assessment is based on the case study of the digital news media market in Croatia that combines multiple data sources including an online survey, financial indicators provided by the main regulatory body and the main digital advertising association, focus groups and semi-structured interviews with representatives of major advertising companies in Croatia. The data shows a discrepancy between the total internet advertising investment that is estimated at around 22.6 million EUR, and digital media income which is estimated at 14.7 million EUR in 2015. The preliminary results from our study indicates that the major companies such as Google and Facebook, which are simultaneously the most used websites in Croatia, are the final destinations for the majority of digital advertising investments and the main reason for the aforementioned gap. Previous research shows that Croatian traditional mass media, as well as online-only media, are struggling to establish viable models of digital journalism and digital news. The struggle comes at the expense of journalistic quality, accuracy, independence from political and economic interests, human rights protection and so on. Data from our case study indicates that even though the overall internet advertising investments are on the rise, the amount mostly flows to the advertising departments of major multinational companies such as Google and Facebook. The total amounts of digital advertising investments in Croatia are insignificant compared to the total annual income of 70.1 billion EUR for Google and 16.9 billion EUR for Facebook in 2015. More than 90% of their respective income comes from advertising. Analytically, we aim to show how the digital advertising gap in Croatia points to a global economy of scale that the juggernauts of digital capitalism have established through their global spread, appropriation and use. Their entrenched position is fueled by ideologies of technical superiority and search neutrality by Google, and sharing and collaborating promoted by Facebook. It is a tempting story to many local digital advertising investors and worldwide online marketers.

digital capitalism, digital news media, advertising revenues, Croatia

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