Google and Meta: The Ad Business Amazon Built on Their TurfWide moat

Amazon (AMZN) — moat facet

Google infers intent, Meta infers behaviour, Amazon watches a shopper with a wallet out — and can prove the sale afterwards.

The only market where Amazon is unambiguously the attacker is advertising. Its ad business reached $68.6 billion in 20251 and grew 26% to $19.8 billion in the second quarter of 20262, which makes Amazon the third-largest digital advertising company in the world behind Google and Meta3 — a position built almost entirely out of revenue those two used to collect.

Amazon advertising services revenue by quarter ($B)11.8Q1'2412.8Q214.3Q317.3Q413.9Q1'2515.7Q217.7Q321.3Q417.2Q1'2619.8Q2Amazon quarterly results releases (Form 8-K, Ex. 99.1)
Every quarter beat its year-earlier match; Q2 2026 was 26% higher than Q2 2025.

The structural advantage is that Amazon sells advertising at the point of purchase rather than upstream of it. Google infers intent from a query and Meta from behaviour; Amazon observes a shopper who is standing in the aisle with a wallet out, and can prove the sale afterwards. That closes the loop advertisers have wanted for a century, and it explains why ad dollars have moved despite Amazon's audience being far smaller than either rival's.

The uncomfortable question is who pays. Amazon's advertisers are substantially the same sellers who already pay it referral and fulfilment fees — the advertising is, in effect, a second toll for visibility on a shelf they already rent, and the subject of persistent complaints and regulatory interest. Watch advertising revenue growth against paid-unit growth: advertising rising much faster than units means sellers are paying more for the same traffic, which is lucrative until it becomes the reason they leave.

Moat trajectory: Widening

The one market where Amazon is the aggressor: third-largest globally and still growing above 25%, built on purchase intent neither rival can observe directly and on closed-loop attribution advertisers have wanted for a century. The constraint is internal — the customers being charged are Amazon's own sellers.

The number that tests this moat
Moat Explorer calc
Advertising revenue, 2025
$68.6B, +22.1%

The third-largest digital ad business, built on purchase intent. Growth falling below Meta's would say the attribution advantage is no longer enough.

How it's calculated: 68,635 / 56,214 - 1.
Source: Amazon Form 10-K, FY2025 ↗
References
  1. ReportedIts ad business reached $68.6 billion in 2025 and grew 26% to $19.8 billion in the second quarter of 2026, which makes Amazon the third-largest digital advertising company in the world behind Google and Meta — a position built almost entirely out of revenue those two used to collect.
    Amazon.com Inc., Form 10-K, FY2025 — segment results (net sales North America $426,305M, International $161,894M, AWS $128,725M; operating income $29,619M, $4,750M and $45,606M of a consolidated $79,975M, against $24,967M, $3,792M and $39,834M of $68,593M in 2024), net sales by product line (online stores $269,287M, physical stores $22,561M, third-party seller services $172,162M, advertising services $68,635M, subscription services $49,619M, AWS $128,725M, other $5,935M), net income $77,670M, and 2025 charges of $2.5 billion recorded in Q3 2025 primarily related to the settlement of a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission — Fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 · publ. February 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedIts ad business reached $68.6 billion in 2025 and grew 26% to $19.8 billion in the second quarter of 2026, which makes Amazon the third-largest digital advertising company in the world behind Google and Meta — a position built almost entirely out of revenue those two used to collect.
    Amazon.com, second-quarter 2026 results release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1) — net sales $200.6B (+20%), operating income $27.5B (13.7% margin), AWS sales $42.2B (+37%, fastest growth in 18 quarters, $169B annualized run rate) and operating income $16.6B (39.4% margin, against 32.9% a year earlier), advertising $19.8B (+26%), online stores +15%, third-party seller services +16%, net income $62.6B including $53.4B of non-operating income primarily from investments in Anthropic, TTM operating cash flow $161.4B against net capital purchases $169.0B and free cash flow -$7.6B; AWS AI business and chips business each above a $25B run rate; Trainium commitments from Anthropic and OpenAI; Amazon Leo at nearly 400 satellites, enough to begin initial service this year; Zoox's NHTSA Part 555 exemption to charge for rides; Alexa+ triers signing up for Prime at a nearly 25% higher rate; supplemental table Q1 2025-Q2 2026 (WW shipping cost growth 3%, 6%, 8%, 10%, 14%, 19%; WW paid unit growth 8%, 12%, 11%, 12%, 15%, 17%; seller unit mix 60-62%; North America TTM operating margin 7.4%); Q3 2026 guidance of $197.0-202.0B net sales and $22.5-26.5B operating income, with growth nearly 400 basis points higher excluding Prime Day in both years — Q2 2026 — quarter ended June 30, 2026 · publ. July 30, 2026 · source ↗
  3. Third-party estimateIts ad business reached $68.6 billion in 2025 and grew 26% to $19.8 billion in the second quarter of 2026, which makes Amazon the third-largest digital advertising company in the world behind Google and Meta — a position built almost entirely out of revenue those two used to collect.
    Amazon advertising revenue and market position — ~$68.6B in FY2025, running above $80B annualised on ~$19.8B quarterly (+26%); third-largest digital advertising company globally behind Google and Meta, ~11% of global digital ad spending — 2025-2026 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 22, 2026