Total Market Size and Top 20 Market Share Leaders

Information Industry Growth Slowed to 5.8 Percent in 2006

Information industry growth slowed somewhat in 2006. Industry revenues rose 5.8 percent to $365 billion, following stronger growth of 7.7 percent in 2005. The segments showed mixed financial results, ranging from 0.5 percent growth in News to 23 percent growth in Search, Aggregation & Syndication. The following table shows revenues and growth rates in the 12 information industry segments Outsell defines and tracks.

Preliminary Est. Worldwide Information Industry Revenue by Segment ($M)

Source: Outsell’s Publishers & Information Providers Database
© 2007 Outsell, Inc. Reproduction strictly prohibited.

The major findings revealed in this market sizing include:

• Google is now No. 1 in the information industry, and with 69 percent growth to $10.3 billion in 2006, it edged out Reed Elsevier. Yahoo! moved up to the No. 6 ranking from its No. 7 position in 2005. Google and Yahoo! continue to disrupt the status quo, outgrowing the rest of the information industry and, as a by-product, driving faster growth in ad-funded content.
• All segments roughly held or slightly increased their share of the industry except for News, which lost share. Search, Aggregation & Syndication increased its already growing share, showing clearly again this year the shift – driven by Google and Yahoo! – of advertising dollars from News and other sectors into Search.
• Total industry growth with Google and Yahoo! included was 5.8 percent, and without them was only 4 percent.
• The top 20 companies as a group grew at nearly double the rate of overall industry growth, but this growth was led by the Search players. Total growth of the top 20 including Google and Yahoo! was 10.4 percent. Without them, it was 6 percent. HotTopics: Information Industry Market Size And Share Rankings; Preliminary 2006 Results 4 Volume 3, January 30, 2007 © Outsell, Inc. All rights reserved.
• Growth was flat or negative for all the News providers among the top 20 firms, mostly among providers that are competing for advertising dollars.

Google Now No. 1 in Information Industry

The top 20 companies in the information industry represent $106.4 billion of 2006 revenues, or 29.1 percent of the entire market, with the average revenue per company at approximately $5.3 billion. In aggregate these 20 companies grew at 10.4 percent in 2006, nearly double the overall industry's growth rate of 5.8 percent.

Google rose from No. 4 in 2005 to the No. 1 market share position in 2006 with its sizzling 68.8 percent growth. Yahoo! edged up from No. 7 to No. 6 on 20.2 percent growth, much slower than its increase in 2005, when the firm nearly doubled in size. Despite their stellar growth and leadership positions, both firms' growth is slowing as paid search meets more challenges.

Among the remaining players of the Top 20, only three firms achieved double-digit growth: Pearson, Bloomberg, and Yell. Pearson moved from No. 5 to No. 4 in market share, and Bloomberg rose from No. 14 to No. 11. Seven of the top 20 held their market share positions, and seven lost share in 2006. Growth was flat or declining for seven of the top 20 firms, all of them News providers struggling to maintain circulation and ad revenues.

Top 20 Overall Information Industry Companies Preliminary Est. Worldwide
Revenues ($M)

Source: Outsell’s Publishers & Information Providers Database
© 2007 Outsell, Inc. Reproduction strictly prohibited

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