Mobile’s time is now: ad market rises 105% thanks to Google, Facebook

Anyone who’s been following Google and Facebook’s financials of late probably saw this one coming. Last year, global mobile ad revenue rose 105.0% to total US$17.96-billion.

The figures, which come from digital research consultancy eMarketer, suggest that the industries will keep growing at a fairly aggressive rate (75%) to reach US$31.45-billion this year.

If it hits that predicted growth, mobile is set to account for nearly a quarter of global adspend this year.

As eMarketer notes though, a large proportion of the acceleration in mobile ad revenues is thanks to Google and Facebook. Combined, the internet giant and the social network saw net mobile ad revenues increase by US$6.92-billion, claiming 75.2% of the additional US$9.2-billion that went toward mobile in 2013. The research consultancy also doesn’t see anyone rising to challenge their position in the near future. In fact, it thinks that they’re likely to consolidate their position.

Interestingly, it sees Facebook as leading the way when it comes to mobile. In 2012, the social network accounted for just 5.4% of the global advertising market. In 2013, that share increased to 17.5%, and eMarketer predicts it will rise again this year to 21.7%.

That’s pretty impressive given that the big blue social network has battled with a number of its mobile offerings, including the ill-fated Facebook Home (we also haven’t heard much about Paper recently).

Whether or not its autoplay mobile video ads take off or not, Facebook’s mobile ad revenue also seems set to keep growing with eMarketer predicting that it will account for 63.4% of Facebook’s net digital ad revenues in 2014.

For now though, Google still claims dominance in the mobile ad space, with around 50% of the global market, although eMarketer reckons that’s likely to slip to around 46.8% by the end of 2014. Mobile currently accounts for 23.1% of Google’s net ad revenues, a number that looks set to increase to 33.8% this year.