It's no secret that mobile devices are driving much of the growth in online advertising. Now it's becoming more apparent just how far mobile advertising has come, and how fast.
In a new worldwide ad spending report out April 2, eMarketer predicts that global ad spending aimed at smartphones and tablets will blow past $100 billion globally, reaching more than half of all digital ad spending.
It will be a stunning milestone, coming only about four years after most people wondered if mobile ad spending would ever take off. Less than three years ago, Facebook's initial public offering of stock sputtered in large part because it had virtually no mobile ad revenues and little apparent idea of how it would get them.
To be precise, eMarketer says the $101.37 billion in mobile ad spending
The lion's share of mobile ad spending will be in two countries: the U.S. and China. U.S. mobile ad spend will double from last year to next year, while China's will triple. Combined, they will command 61% of the market.
The U.K., Japan, and Germany will fill out the rest of the top five, though they won't see mobile become the majority ad channel until 2017. The next year, Brazil will become the ninth-largest mobile ad market globally, eMarketer predicts, and Indonesia will make the biggest run to the No. 12 spot, from No. 21 this year.
One interesting laggard: India. Despite its huge base of mobile phone users, eMarketer says, its market growth will remain relatively slow, remaining under $1 billion even by 2018.
