Google and Facebook accounted for one-fifth of global advertising expenditure across all media in 2016, according to new research.
Figures compiled by data and analysis marketing company Zenith showed that the two companies earned 64% of all global ad spend growth between 2012 and 2016.
The two companies have nearly doubled the amount they owned five years ago in global advertising expenditure, which was at 11%, up 9% since 2012.
Zenith found that Google, under its parent company Alphabet, is the largest media owner in the world, as it attracted $79.4 billion in ad revenue in 2016. That is three times more than the second largest, Facebook, which attracted $26.9 billion.
In third place was Comcast, which is the largest traditional media owner, which raked in $12.9 billion in advertising revenue.
Web advertising has overtaken television to become the world's largest advertising medium this year. In Zenith's top 30, there are five other pure-internet media owners - Baidu, Microsoft, Yahoo, Verizon and Twitter. The seven digital platforms generated $132.8 billion in internet ad revenue in 2016, which is 73% of all internet ad spend, and 24% of global ad spend across media.
Verizon occupies the 21st place in Zenith's rankings, but Zenith predicted it could hit sixth once it acquires Yahoo.
Twitter is the fastest growing media owner on the list, increasing its revenues by 734% between 2012 and 2016, while Chinese social media giant Tencent is second with 697% growth over the same period, followed by Facebook in third with 528% growth.
