Google does not just make money off of its gigantic search market share, but also off of myriad publishers that post their AdSense advertisements on individual websites.
Is the percentage of money that Google is making off of those website owners increasing, while their payouts to publishers decrease?
Digital Inspiration is reporting that Google is now paying out some 72% of AdSense revenues to publishers (who serve the ads to their users), down from some 75% earlier in the year. That represents a 4% decrease in relative payouts to AdSense publishers.
While the percentage my be small, it represents nearly eighty million dollars in decreased payouts to the publishers that take part in AdSense. Once you realize the dollar amount, the trend and magnitude become worrying.
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Even more so, the trend seems to be holding steady. In 2009, Google AdSense payouts went from from 75.0%, to 73.8%, to 73.9%, to 72.1% in the last quarter of the year. If that continues, at a 3% decline per year, Google could find itself approaching a one third share of AdSense revenues in less than two years time. This would be up from a one fourth share in the first quarter of 2009.
Small continued changes to a huge product can make gigantic difference to its dependants. If Google perpetuates this decline, it could find a very large discontented publisher base hungry for a better solution.
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