Global mobile ad revenue to hit $9bn in 2013 after massive 2012 surge

If for some reason you still have doubts about the mobile advertising game, this should put them firmly to rest. Global mobile advertising revenues nearly doubled last year and are set to pass the US$9-billion mark this year.

According to research released today from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and analysis firm IHS, mobile advertising revenues increased 83% between 2011 and 2012, growing from €3.8-billion (US$4.9-billion) to €6.9-billion (US$8.8-billion). Given continued growth, it’s therefore more than likely that it will shoot past the US$9-billion mark this year.

While messaging was obviously the dominant form of mobile advertising a few years ago, the rise of the smartphone means that display and search are now the predominant forms and are only becoming stronger.

In fact, the research suggests that search and display are growing twice as fast as messaging.

Interestingly the Asia-Pacific and North American regions dominate mobile advertising revenues. That may seem a little surprising to anyone who’s heard Africa called the mobile continent, but it’s worth bearing in mind that feature phones still dominate the region. The two leading regions have fairly large populations as well as a number of markets with high smartphone penetration.

It’s not the established regions that are showing the highest growth though. Latin America showed more than 200% growth in mobile display revenue and more than 240% growth in search advertising revenue.

A large part of that however may be down to the fact that, unlike most of the rest of the world, messaging still makes up a large portion of mobile ad revenue in Latin America. Coupled with the global trend towards mobile display and search advertising, it seems likely that they will continue to erodes messaging’s dominance in the region.