Obstacles are mounting against online-advertising giants, but the pain won’t be spread evenly.
Ahead of first-quarter reports coming from the industry’s major players over the next few weeks, Wall Street has taken on a notably cautious tone for the sector. The combined weight of rising inflation, continued supply-chain challenges, the war in Ukraine and changes last year to Apple’s mobile operating system are all expected to take some toll on the sector.
Analysts expect combined advertising revenue from the six major players—Google, Facebook, Amazon.com, Twitter, TWTR 6.16% Snap SNAP -2.03% and Pinterest —to grow 19% year over year compared with the 28% growth seen in the fourth quarter and 40% growth in last year’s first quarter, according to FactSet estimates.
