Mobile Internet ad spend to hit $2 bn/year mark soon

Mobile Internet advertising expenditure will rise significantly with revenues expected to hit $2 billion per-year levels by 2014, riding on growing consumer adoption and rising brand engagement with mobile services, a report said.

According to the report by UK-based Juniper Research, many markets where fixed Internet access is limited, cellular phones have already become the dominant means of accessing the Internet.

For instance, mobile accounted for nearly 90 per cent of all internet users in the country in 2008 in India.

"Ad spend on mobile Internet will approach $500 million globally in 2009, rising to nearly $2 billion per annum by 2014," the report forecast.

Growing consumer adoption of mobile Internet services and heightened brand engagement with mobile services will be reflected in a sharp increase in expenditure on mobile Internet advertising, it added.

"The total value of ad spend on mobile is expected to rise from just over $1.4 billion in 2009 to $6 billion in 2014," the report stated.

Moreover, operator transition from a walled garden environment to a more open model has meant that mobile Internet usage per se has surged worldwide.