TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - France-based advertising agency Zenith Optimedia projected that increasing internet speed and social media's mobile expansions will cause social media advertising to surge in 2019.

Publicist-owned Zenith projects the world's advertising expenditure on social media will account for 20 percent of all internet advertising in 2019, Reuters reported, or reaching US$50 billion in value—just one percent smaller than newspaper ads'.

The forecaster even predicts social media to overtake newspapers by 2020.

"Social media and online video are driving continued growth in global ad spend, despite political threats to the economy," Zenith's head of forecasting Jonathan Barnard said.

The media industry has been witnessing a rapid shift in advertising trends recently, with companies relocating their ad budgets from traditional media like newspapers to websites.

Marketers have since directed their ad spending to social media sites, where ads are blended into users' social media feeds on platforms like Facebook and Snapchat. This method is proven to be more effective than interruptive banner formats.

Zenith forecasts that the global ad expenditure will grow 4.4 percent in 2017, the same rate as in 2016.

This year's global events like the Olympic Games, Britain's EU referendum and the U.S. presidential election are expected to have contributed to advertising increase this year.

Meanwhile, online video ads are also expected to see a major boost, generating a worldwide value of US$35.4 billion by 2019.

Zenith's report also showed that global spending on advertising has been quite stable since 2010. There has been decelerated growth in the Middle East and North Africa, but Zenith expects strong growth in China and many parts of Asia.

ANTARA