Facebook will overtake Yahoo! this year to become the number one platform for delivering display ads according to recent research conducted.

The report said that the social media site will see its share of the $10.1 billion (£6.2 billion) industry rise to 21.6% of total revenues this year, up from 13.6% in 2010. Simultaneously, Yahoo! will see its market share remain relatively static, with a small increase from 16.1 per cent to 16.4% predicted.

eMarketer forecasts that marketers will spend $4 billion (£2.5 billion) worldwide on Facebook in 2011, with $2.2 billion (£1.4 billion) of that in the US. The company will receive 68% of all social network ad spending worldwide. In the US, it will garner 71% of social network spending and 7.7% of total US online ad spending.

Worldwide spending on social networks will reach almost $6 billion (£3.7 billion)  this year, amounting to $3.1 billion (£1.9 billion) in the US and $2.9 billion (£1.8 billion) in international markets.

Twitter is rapidly deploying its ad products in the US and will soon be selling ads internationally. In eMarketer’s first full forecast for the company, we expect Twitter to attract $150 million (£92 million) in advertising this year and $250 million (£154 million) in 2012. In a twist, ad spending on Twitter is forecast to surpass spending on Myspace in 2012, which is expected to see spending drop to $184 million (£113 billion) worldwide this year and $156 million in 2012.

Social games will also start to make a dent in the market. Although advertising trails virtual goods as a revenue stream for social games, eMarketer still expects marketer expenditures of $274 million worldwide this year and $417 million in 2012.

David Hallerman, principal analyst at eMarketer, commented: “What that leapfrogging trend confirms is the great and growing demand among brand marketers for online display ad placements.”