You read it right. 100 billion impressions. At one a second that would be over 3,168 years. Or about 65% of recorded history. Incredible. But as you might have remembered from my last blog post about the net present value of user generated content, I like to think in terms of “what’s that worth?”
To put it simply, it’s a lot. Let’s consider a few assumptions:
- There are probably about 20 impressions average per “decision” made online
- On average, user generated content influences a 20% lift in conversion
- The average spend per decision is around $45
- Returns are reduced by about 5% when user generated content is involved
- For every dollar spent online, about $5.70 is spent offline
Running a few simple calculations, this puts the value per impression at $0.56. Or in total, about $56 billion dollars of online value. If you use the stats published for offline influence, it goes up to $3.25 per impression, or $325 billion in value. Sounds incredible – and sure, there are some assumptions here, but when you think about the impressions we’ve served up in just under five years being worth $325 billion, it ranks as just above the 25th highest Gross Domestic Product. In another five years, it will eclipse the top 10.
Who’d have thought 100 billion user-generated content impressions would be worth more than the GDP of Austria? 
Pingback: Bazaarvoice hits a milestone with 100 Billion UGC impressions served | Bazaarblog