Majority Of Ad Revenue Goes To Foreign Media

Advertisement purchases by Icelandic companies have doubled since 2009, with 51 percent of all adverts being placed in foreign media platforms, according to new data by Statistics Iceland (Hagstofan). Revenue gained by foreign platforms from Icelandic advertisements have grown approximately 26 times over. For comparison, ad revenue of Icelandic media platforms has increased by eight percent. The total revenue for foreign media is 15 billion ISK in 2024.

The largest amount spent on foreign media advertisements occurs for web-based ads, social media, and search results.

For the first time, Icelandic advertisers spent more money on foreign advertisement platforms than domestic ones in 2024. Information on the shares of individual companies in the digital ad market is unknown, but Hagstofan hypothesises that Alphabet — Google and Youtube’s parent company — and Meta, which runs Facebook and Instagram, are the largest benefactors. In 2024, the combined share of the two companies reached 97 percent of ad purchases made by credit card.