Global mobile ad revenues for 2010 to hit $3.5 billion

Global revenues from mobile advertising will be worth $3.5 billion in 2010 according to the latest research from Informa Telecoms & Media.

According to Informa the mobile advertising market has seen strong growth over the past 12 months driven by the initiatives and investments of big players including Apple and Google and is expected to show strong growth over the next five years and generate revenues of around US$ 24 billion in 2015.

While it’s good news for most of us, it’s bad news if you’re a mobile operator as Informa believes that during this period, the share of mobile advertising revenues for the operators will fall from around 26% in 2010 to estimated 20% in 2015.

The main growth in ads in Informa’s view is from the  Media and FMCG brands where there’s an increasing number of successful mobile advertising campaigns and a lot of market activity including in-house innovation, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions. Informa also points to a growing consumer engagement on mobile, which is starting to provide the much-needed momentum that the mobile advertising industry needs, and will lead to accelerated growth in mobile advertising in 2011 and beyond.

“The launch of Apple’s iAd advertising platform is forcing rivals to speed up their own mobile advertising strategies. Google has responded by acquiring AdMob and has announced it is on track to generate US$1 billion in revenues from mobile in 2010, a significant portion of which will be mobile advertising revenues. Google has also reported a 500% growth in mobile search queries between 2008 and 2010,” comments Shailendra Pandey, senior analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media and author of the recent Mobile Advertising research.

The really good news is that we’re now out of the test phase and we’re well into the development phase. as many brands are now spending significant sums on mobile campaigns on a regular basis. “The investments from big players such as Google and Apple validates the market opportunity, resulting in brands and agencies more actively considering mobile for their campaigns,” Pandey adds.

Informa Telecoms & Media believes the mobile advertising market will go through a sustained period of consolidation over the next 12-18 months. The big value chain players have been on the acquisition trail for companies that will integrate seamlessly with their own platforms to ensure they have that end-to-end mobile ad-serving capability.

[ad name=”Google Text half banner advert “]