Social media is now a deal worth U.S. $ 16 billion

The global social media revenue are projected to reach $ 16.9 billion in 2012. A jump of 43.1% over the previous year, according to Gartner.

Most of this amount will come from advertising, which will contribute $ 8.8 billion. Revenue from social games come close to $ 6.2 billion and signatures represent another $ 278 million. The researchers predict a "moderate growth" for the segment in the coming years.

The advertising seems to be aligned with a similar projection of eMarketer, which provides $ 7.7 billion in advertising revenue from social media in 2012 and $ 11.9 billion in 2014. In the U.S. these revenues will be around 53% over the next two years, according to eMarketer, which has no value to revenue social media.

To get an idea d growth, the Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates that global revenues from advertising to Internet advertising totaled $ 31 billion in 2011. The ads accounted for $ 11.8 billion.