A year ago, Meta finance chief Susan Li offered chilling commentary about the state of the digital ad market, telling analysts that the struggling industry would remain in a slump.
Speaking to analysts on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Li said at the time that Facebook’s revenue “remained under pressure from weak advertising demand” and that sales would continue “to be impacted by the uncertain and volatile macroeconomic landscape.”
During that period Meta’s ad revenue fell 4%, and Google’s ad business suffered a similar drop. Inflation, supply chain issues and global conflict were all depressing spending.
The narrative is very different now.
With results in from Alphabet, Meta and Amazon — the three U.S. leaders in digital advertising — it’s clear that the market has rebounded, at least for the time being.
Meta’s fourth-quarter ad sales jumped 24% from a year earlier to $38.7 billion, while Amazon’s booming ad unit rose 27% to $14.7 billion. Meanwhile Alphabet, still the market leader, saw its Google ad business rise 11% to $65.5 billion, boosted by 16% growth at YouTube.
Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, told CNBC that big advertiser events like the Summer Olympics in Paris and the upcoming presidential elections will contribute to higher spending. Insider Intelligence said in a recent report that global ad spending will jump 10% in 2024, up from growth of 6.3% in 2023 and the same level of expansion the prior year.
“After two years of relative malaise, the outlook is very positive on a global scale and in every major region,” the report said.
Analysts at William Blair expressed similar sentiment. They said businesses appear less concerned with the Russia-Ukraine conflict than in the past and are seeing a potentially more favorable interest rate outlook.
“The current macroeconomic environment is continuing to improve for digital advertising,” they wrote, adding that investments by Meta and Alphabet into artificial intelligence to improve their ad platforms are paying off.
Investors will get additional data on the digital ad market when Snap and Pinterest report earnings this week. Those numbers could look quite different, Williamson said, because they’re “much smaller companies that have struggled to build substantial ad businesses, and in this environment, the big are getting bigger.”
On the whole, “digital advertising is continuing to eat up share” of worldwide advertising, Williamson said.
Whether the big players can maintain the momentum is a question that will persist for the coming quarters. One reason growth looks so strong now is because the numbers are being compared to the year-ago period, when conditions were bleak.
Another bump is coming from China-based advertisers, which are spending heavily to reach users across the globe. Meta said that sales from China represented 10% of revenue last year, and accounted for 5 percentage points of growth. Analysts have said online retailers Temu and Shein are the biggest contributors to Meta’s China business, and have raised concerns that such spending may not last.
Regarding Meta’s China business, Li told analysts last week that “the level of growth in 2023 will probably be hard to replicate, but we’ll just keep watching this and see how it plays out.”
Analysts at Bank of America Global Research warned in a note on Friday that investors shouldn’t look past the conflict in the Red Sea, which is causing supply chain bottlenecks and could lead ecommerce companies to reduce their ad spending.
“We think exposure for Alphabet & Meta is very modest,” they wrote.
Perplexity AI on Wednesday launched a new artificial intelligence-powered web browser called Comet in the startup’s latest effort to compete in the consumer internet market against companies like Google and Microsoft.
Comet will allow users to connect with enterprise applications like Slack and ask complex questions via voice and text, according to a brief demo video Perplexity released on Wednesday.
The browser is available to Perplexity Max subscribers, and the company said invite-only access will roll out to a waitlist over the summer. Perplexity Max costs users $200 per month.
“We built Comet to let the internet do what it has been begging to do: to amplify our intelligence,” Perplexity wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
Perplexity is best known for its AI-powered search engine that gives users simple answers to questions and links out to the original source material on the web. After the company was accused of plagiarizing content from media outlets, it launched a revenue-sharing model with publishers last year.
In May, Perplexity was in late-stage talks to raise $500 million at a $14 billion valuation, a source familiar confirmed to CNBC. The startup was also approached by Meta earlier this year about a potential acquisition, but the companies did not finalize a deal.
“We will continue to launch new features and functionality for Comet, improve experiences based on your feedback, and focus relentlessly–as we always have–on building accurate and trustworthy AI that fuels human curiosity,” Perplexity said Wednesday.
A worker sorts packages on Amazon Prime Day in New York on July 8, 2025.
Klaus Galiano | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. online sales jumped 9.9% year over year to $7.9 billion on Tuesday, the kickoff of Amazon‘s Prime Day megasale, according to Adobe Analytics.
At that level, it marks the “single biggest e-commerce day so far this year,” Adobe said. It also eclipsed total online spending during Thanksgiving last year, when sales on the holiday reached $6.1 billion.
Amazon’s Prime Day bargain blitz began on Tuesday and lasts through Friday. The event, first launched in 2015 as a way to hook new Prime members, has pushed other retailers to launch counterprogramming.
Home and outdoor goods showed signs of strong demand during the first day of Amazon’s discount event, said Kashif Zafar, CEO of Xnurta, an advertising platform that serves more than 20,000 online businesses.
Read more CNBC Amazon coverage
Other historically well-performing categories such as beauty and household essentials saw softer demand early on, but could see demand pick up as Prime Day continues, he added.
“Early Prime Day numbers might look soft compared to last year’s surge, but it’s too early to call the event a miss,” Zafar said in an email. “With four days instead of two, we’re seeing a different rhythm, consumers are spreading out their purchases.”
Adobe expects online sales to reach $23.8 billion across all retailers during the 96-hour event, a level that’s “equivalent to two Black Fridays.”
U.S. online shoppers spent $14.2 billion during the 48-hour Prime Day event last year, according to Adobe.
This year’s Prime Day is landing at an uncertain time for retailers and consumers as they grapple with the fallout of President Donald Trump‘s unpredictable tariff policies.
U.S. consumer confidence worsened in June after improving in May as Americans remained concerned about the tariffs’ effect on the economy and prices, according to the Conference Board.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last month the company hasn’t seen prices “appreciably go up” on its site as a result of tariffs.
Some third-party sellers previously told CNBC they were considering raising or had already raised the price of some of their products manufactured in China as the cost of tariffs became burdensome.
Top executives from tech, media and finance gathered in Sun Valley, Idaho, for Allen & Co.’s annual conference this week, an event that is often referred to as “summer camp for billionaires.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, Disney CEO Bob Iger and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were all pictured entering the lodge.
Wednesday’s agenda includes interviews with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IAC Chairman Barry Diller, sources told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin.
When he arrived on Tuesday, Altman said he is not concerned about the artificial intelligence talent war and that he would talk to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week.
Scroll down to see the tech and media moguls arriving at the exclusive event.
Apple CEO Tim Cook
Tim Cook arrives for the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David Grogan | CNBC
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and Disney CEO Bob Iger
Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, and Bob Iger (R), CEO of Walt Disney Co., attend the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
TV host Gayle King
Gayle King attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
GM CEO Mary Barra
Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Spanx founder Sara Blakely
Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, arrives for the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon
Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, arrives for the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Entertainment executive Casey Wasserman
Casey Wasserman, CEO of Wasserman Media Group, arrives for the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Boston Red Sox and Liverpool FC owner John Henry
John Henry attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor
Bret Taylor, chairman of the board of directors of OpenAI, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav
David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone
Ken Langone attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller
Stanley Druckenmiller attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.