Mobile Ad Revenue to Grow Tenfold to $24.1 Billion by 2015

Mobile advertising revenue will rise tenfold to about $24.1 billion by 2015, with much of that growth coming from China and India, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.

Informa “believes that the global mobile-advertising market was worth $2.3 billion in 2009,” Shailendra Pandey, a senior analyst with London-based consultant Informa, said in an report today. The Asia Pacific Developing region will account for the largest share by 2015, at 30.9 percent, driven by “strong growth” from China and India, Pandey said. The Asia Pacific Developed region, including Japan and South Korea, will fall to 21.7 percent from about 43.6 percent this year.

Google Inc. and Apple Inc. have both bought mobile advertising businesses in the past year to take advantage of consumers’ increasing use of mobile devices to buy goods and services. Google bought Admob in May for $750 million and Apple paid more than $200 million for Quattro Wireless in January.

“Successful companies that have unique and attractive technology for mobile advertising,” will become takeover targets for companies such as Google, Apple, Nokia Oyj and Yahoo! Inc, Pandey said. Apple’s iAd network, which was started in July, “will force its rivals to speed up their own mobile advertising strategies, particularly Google, which has completed its acquisition of AdMob,” he said.

North America will account for 18 percent of the market in 2015, with Latin America at 6.4 percent and Western Europe 8.6 percent, according to the report.

“The mobile advertising industry has now moved beyond the trial and experimental phase and many advertisers and brands are now spending significant sums on running mobile campaigns each month,” Pandey said.