eMarketer

About eMarketer

EMARKETER is a New York-based subscription research company providing insights and trends on digital marketing, media, and commerce. Founded in 1996 by Terry Chabrowe and Geoff Ramsey, the company has spent 30 years as an authority on the forces shaping media, advertising, and commerce. Its rigorous forecasts, proprietary and vetted data, and expert analysis serve as the common language for organizations navigating digital transformation, with its iconic red-and-black charts a fixture in boardrooms and industry presentations. Owned by Axel Springer SE, which acquired 93 percent of the company in June 2016 for around $242 million, EMARKETER serves more than 1,000 subscription clients including most Fortune 500 companies. It publishes at emarketer.com.

Founding in 1996

EMARKETER was founded in 1996 to help organizations understand a digital economy just beginning to take shape. Co-founders Terry Chabrowe, chief executive, and Geoff Ramsey, chief innovation officer, recognized that the internet's commercial emergence created an urgent need for reliable data on digital consumers and markets. The company's founding insight was aggregation and curation: collecting information from thousands of global sources, comparing estimates, and contextualizing them into authoritative forecasts. This methodology addressed the digital economy's fundamental information problem: abundant data of uncertain quality. From its New York headquarters, the company built a research operation that would become the industry's standard reference for digital market sizing.

Research methodology

EMARKETER's authority rests on a transparent methodology combining quantitative and qualitative proprietary research with more than 3,000 vetted data sources. Its analysts, forecasters, and researchers publish industry reports, forecasts, comparative estimates, charts, articles, interviews, case studies, and videos through a web-based client portal. The company curates, compares, and contextualizes information from global sources to provide macro-level understanding of digital trends in advertising, marketing, media, and commerce. Regular re-evaluation ensures forecasts reflect the latest developments. This methodological rigor distinguishes EMARKETER from the fragmented sources, competing narratives, and AI-generated answers that proliferate online, giving clients a trusted view of what is actually happening in digital markets.

The Axel Springer acquisition

In June 2016, the German media company Axel Springer acquired 93 percent of EMARKETER for around $242 million, part of its strategy to expand digital activities into English-speaking territories and strengthen its business content. Co-founders Chabrowe and Ramsey retained 7 percent and remained with the company. Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner described EMARKETER as a long-established, profitable publisher of high-quality digital market data, excellently positioned for the digitization wave. The acquisition complemented Springer's business services including BI Intelligence and Politico Pro. In 2015, EMARKETER's revenues were $45.5 million, expected to reach $53 million in 2016, with more than 180 employees. The deal valued the company's subscription model, with 81 percent of revenues from subscriptions, at a premium reflecting its market position.

Insider Intelligence

In June 2019, Axel Springer announced plans to merge EMARKETER with Business Insider Intelligence, the subscription research arm of Business Insider, which Springer had acquired in 2015. In May 2020, the combined operation was branded Insider Intelligence, with a mission to become the world's leading research company focused on digital transformation. The merger combined EMARKETER's brand credibility and robust methodology with BII's fast-moving research DNA, creating a 220-person operation based in Times Square. The combined company maintained BII's connection with Business Insider's global distribution platform while preserving EMARKETER's products. In 2024, the brand reverted to EMARKETER, restoring the name under which the company had built its reputation.

Products and services

EMARKETER's corporate subscription gives clients access to its data through a web-based portal containing reports, forecasts, charts, and analysis. Its coverage spans digital advertising, marketing, media, retail, and e-commerce, addressing the essential questions of how consumers spend their time, how consumers spend their money, and what marketers are doing to reach them. The company's forecasts on ad spending, e-commerce growth, and media consumption are cited across the industry as authoritative benchmarks. Its analysts' interviews and case studies provide qualitative depth alongside the quantitative forecasts. For brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms, the subscription is an essential planning tool for budgeting and strategy.

Industry role

EMARKETER functions as the digital economy's common language: its forecasts and charts appear in executive presentations, investor decks, and media coverage worldwide. When the industry debates the size of the digital ad market, the growth of retail media, or the trajectory of e-commerce, EMARKETER's numbers frame the discussion. This role gives the company influence beyond its subscriber base, as its data shapes public understanding of digital trends. The company's 30-year track record, from search and social media through retail media to AI, demonstrates its ability to evolve with the digital economy. Its authority derives from consistency: decades of rigorous, transparent forecasting that clients have learned to trust.

Competition and market

EMARKETER competes in the market research industry with firms ranging from legacy researchers to digital-native analytics companies. Its distinctive position combines the breadth of a general digital research firm with the depth of specialized forecasting. The company's subscription model, serving most Fortune 500 companies, reflects the value enterprises place on authoritative third-party data for planning. As AI transforms both the subjects it covers and the methods of research itself, EMARKETER has positioned its human expertise and transparent methodology as differentiators against automated alternatives. The company's challenge is to maintain its authority as data proliferates and AI generates plausible-seeming but unreliable market estimates.

Retail and e-commerce research

EMARKETER's retail and e-commerce research has become essential reading as digital commerce reshapes the global economy. Its forecasts on e-commerce growth, retail media spending, and consumer shopping behavior guide the strategies of retailers, brands, and platforms. The company's coverage of retail media networks, the advertising businesses built by retailers, addresses one of digital marketing's fastest-growing segments. Its analysis of trends from social commerce to livestream shopping keeps clients ahead of consumer behavior shifts. For the retail industry navigating digital disruption, EMARKETER's data provides the quantitative foundation for investment decisions worth billions.

The AI era

As artificial intelligence emerges as the defining technology of the 2020s, EMARKETER has made AI's impact on marketing, media, and commerce a central research focus. Its analysts examine how generative AI transforms content creation, advertising, and customer experience, giving clients frameworks for understanding the technology's business implications. The company's own positioning emphasizes human expertise and transparent methodology as differentiators in an era of AI-generated content. This focus reflects the research business's existential question: in a world where AI can generate plausible market analysis, the value of rigorous, vetted, transparently sourced research increases. EMARKETER's bet is that trust becomes the scarcest commodity in the information economy.

Data visualization

EMARKETER's iconic red-and-black charts are among the most recognizable data visualizations in business media, fixtures across industry stages, executive boardrooms, and client conversations. The charts' distinctive design makes complex market data immediately legible, helping teams align strategies and validate decisions. This visual identity has become a brand asset: when executives see the red-and-black format, they recognize authoritative research. The company's investment in clear, consistent data presentation reflects its understanding that research value depends on communication as much as methodology.

Website and outlook

EMARKETER publishes at emarketer.com from its New York headquarters at One Liberty Plaza, where its analysts and forecasters serve subscribers worldwide. From its 1996 founding through the Axel Springer acquisition, the Insider Intelligence interlude, and the 2024 return to its original brand, the company has remained the authority on digital transformation's economics. As artificial intelligence reshapes media, advertising, and commerce, EMARKETER's mission of providing a trusted view of the market continues to guide its research into the digital economy's next wave.