Global mobile ad spending explodes, rises 105% in 2013

Global ad spending increased from $8.76 billion to a total of $17.96 billion last year

The world is quickly going mobile, and there is a ton of money to be made. As such, global mobile ad market is seemingly an unstoppable juggernaut at this point. Even if growth continues to slow over the next few years, as many predict it will, the numbers the global ad market is already reaching are already extremely impressive.

In 2013, the market more than doubled, increasing 105%, from $8.76 billion to a total of $17.96 billion, according to a report from eMarketer put out on Wednesday.

The biggest drivers of that growth were two companies: Facebook and Google. Together, they accounted for a majority of mobile ad market growth worldwide last year.

Google, alone, accounted for nearly half the market last year, though it lost more than 3% of its share from the year prior. Facebook, meanwhile, saw its revenue share absolutely explode, more than tripling from 5.4% to 17.5%.

That is not surprising, considering that Facebook's mobile ads accounted for more than half, 53% of its ad revenue, for the first time ever during the fourth quarter of 2013. That was up from approximately 23% of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012. Even more impressive: the $1.25 in mobile advertising was nearly as large as the company's total ad revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012.

When combined, Facebook and Google accounted for 66.8% of the world's mobile ad revenue last year. 

The two companies are expected to increase their share to 68.5% next year, with Google once again decreasing its revenue share and Facebook increasing. By 2014, eMarketer believes that Facebook will be making 63.4% of its digital ad revenue from mobile. 

The only other company to see an increase in revenue was Twitter, which increased from 1.5% to 2.4%. Pandora, YP and Millenial Media all saw decreases. Twitter is expected to once again increase its share next year.

Overall ad spending growth is already decreasing, down from 119.5% in 2012, and will continue to do so in the next few years, eMarketer predicts.

In 2014, mobile ad spending will rise another 75.1% to $31.45 billion, accounting for nearly one-quarter of total digital ad spending worldwide. By 2018, the market will hit $94.91 billion but with only 22.2% growth by that point/ 

This ikind of slow down is inevitable, of course, but it also means that the market has at least a few more years of really impressive growth before it will be pretty much saturated.

(Image source: americantrustescrow.com)