Facebook’s large user base will make it the world’s largest online display advertising company by revenue this year, overtaking the comparable businesses of Google and Yahoo, according to analysis published on Tuesday.

Enders Analysis, based in London, in a report on Tuesday, forecasts that Facebook will lift its advertising revenues from $1.8bn to $3.5bn in 2011, a rise of 95 per cent. At the same time, Google’s display business – which includes YouTube, the video site, and DoubleClick, its banner network – is expected to rise from $2bn last year to $2.6bn this year, with Facebook extending its lead in 2012.

Display advertising includes text, images and video shown on a standard web page, although it excludes search, from which Google derives significantly larger revenues.

Although Facebook’s advertising revenues remain a fraction of Google’s search business, the social network’s 500m users and the volume of ads it shows those users has enabled it to lift revenues rapidly.

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