Twitter ad revenue to near $1bn in 2014, thanks to mobile

If all goes well, Twitter’s global ad revenue should hit a billion dollars by 2014, says a recent eMarketer report.

The research firm says this number comes in the wake of advertisers showing “more interest in spending money on mobile advertisements on Twitter”, which suggests that Twitter’s reach is improving. With more than 200-million monthly active users, Twitter is one of the top tier social networks so an improved interest in mobile advertising is hardly surprising.

eMarketer reckons that Twitter will generate US$583-million in ad revenue in 2013 and US$950-million in 2014, a significant increase from a previous estimate of US$545-million this year and US$808-million next year. Its mobile revenue is set to hit US$308.9-million in 2013, up from its 2012 total ad revenue and mobile intake of US$138.4 million.

“Twitter has ultimately benefited from the increased focus on mobile by competitors like Google and Facebook, which have both expanded their own mobile ad offerings and worked to convince advertisers to shift dollars to mobile devices, says eMarketer.

The microblogging platform launched of an Ads API recently which eMarketers reckons will also contribute to incremental growth for Twitter this year.

“Twitter also continues to benefit from what has been termed the “native” nature of its ad products, whose integration with the core user experience of the platform allows the company to deliver similar ads seamlessly across multiple devices at high volume. It also means the company has been able to build its mobile advertising business quickly,” says the research firm.

The lion’s share of the estimated ad revenue figures is expected to continue to come from the United States, about 83% this year, down from 90% in 2012. By 2015, Twitter’s continued expansion of foreign sales operations is expected to help non-US ad revenue reach US$319-million, showing an increase from just under US$100-million in 2013.