Worldwide mobile advertising revenue will reach $3.3 billion in 2011, more than double the $1.6 billion generated in 2010, said technology market research firm Gartner. It will reach $20.6 billion by 2015, with search and maps leading from the front, it added.
In comparison, global (PC) Internet advertising is estimated to be worth around $50 billion and is expected to reach around $120 billion by the same period (not Gartner estimates..)
In October last year, Google had announced its mobile ad revenues had hit an annualized rate of $1 billion ($250 million in the quarter,) while Gartner rival IDC has projected a $2 billion mobile ad market for the US alone this year.
“Worldwide revenue will reach $20.6 billion by 2015, but not all types of mobile advertising will generate the same opportunity. Search and maps will deliver the highest revenue, while video/audio ads will see the fastest growth through 2015,” it said in its forecast.
From just 0.5 percent of the total advertising budget in 2010, mobile advertising will cross 4 percent in 2015 as an explosion of media tablets and smartphones increase the mobile online real-estate and customers.
“As the adoption of smartphones and media tablets extends to more consumers, the audience for mobile advertising will increase and become easier to segment and target, driving the growth of mobile advertising spend for brands and advertisers,” said Andrew Frank, research vice president at Gartner.
North America and Western Europe are the regions where mobile advertising budgets will grow most, representing 28 percent and 25 percent of the global market by 2015.
However, the Asia Pacific and Japan — where mobile data consumption is much higher — will be the top market, with 49.2 percent of mobile advertising in 2011, and 33.6 percent of the global market in 2015, it predicted.
Like on the PC Internet, here too it will be search, including maps and augmented reality apps, which will “spearhead” mobile ad spending, Baghdassarian said.
Unlike the PC, the extremely limited nature of the mobile screen has put a question mark over the future of display or banner advertising on the device. However, Gartner points out that thanks in part to the emergence of Applications, display advertising on the mobile will continue.