It’s a fun debate to have. Who will be the more profitable company in 5 years? Most people jump with Google. And it’s hard to blame them. But if you see recommendations from friends as inherently more valuable than recommendations from strangers, then you can see every online advertising dollar going to Facebook in the future.
And there’s some evidence for this. A report from eMarketer predicts that Facebook’s ad revenue will grow from $1.86 billion in 2010 to $4.05 billion in 2011. That would be a 118% increase year-over-year. And that’s with Facebook still expanding wildly globally.
It’a always hard to predict what’s going to happen. How Google’s going to grow. How online advertising is going to evolve. But I’m going out on a limb…my vote’s on Facebook.