Google Takes Home More Than Half of Worldwide Mobile Internet Ad Revenue

Google leads the world in mobile internet ad revenue, earning more than half of the $8.8 billion advertisers spent last year, but Facebook, which just began focusing on this area, has quickly become a player in the arena, according to eMarketer’s first-ever figures on worldwide digital and mobile advertising revenues.

Google is estimated to have earned $4.61 billion in mobile internet ad revenues last year, more than triple its earnings in 2011.  Facebook. which had no mobile revenue in 2011, is expected to reach over $2 billion in 2013 after earnings almost $500 million in 2012, the report said.  That’s an increase of more than 333 percent.

Facebook’s sharp increase in ad revenue comes as the company stepped up ads for apps in the mobile news feed.  In the first quarter of 2013, Facebook said that about $375 million of its $1.25 billion in ad revenue came from its new mobile app install ads.  That’s up from last quarter, when Facebook made $305.9 million from mobile ads.

Facebook has switched its focus to mobile-based ads from desktop-based ads as the company sees about three quarters of a billion users per month on mobile devices.  But because Facebook doesn’t own its own smartphone OS like Apple and Google, Facebook has to rely on games and apps from the Facebook platform instead of in-app purchases or app sales.  Some argue that Facebook’s current ad system is a bit muddled with too many ad formats available to users.

Google, which is still expected to dominate in 2013, is estimated to earn $8.85 billion in mobile internet ad revenue in 2013, an increase of 92.1 percent and a market share of almost 56 percent, the report said.

Twitter is also expected to see its worldwide mobile ad spending share increase this year to about 2 percent of the total, eMarketer estimates. In the US, however, Twitter will have a higher, 3.6 percent share, eMarketer estimates.

Combined, Google, Facebook and Twitter account for a consolidating share of mobile advertising revenues worldwide, as other players, such as YP, Pandora, Apple and Millennial Media, see their shares decrease, despite maintaining relatively strong businesses growing at rapid rates, the report said.