Smartphone craze to boost mobile ad revenues to a whopping US$ 6billion

Mobile advertising is set to tap a burgeoning app user market of 1.11 billion in 2015.

According to a release, mobile advertising in Asia is set to realize its potential and tap into a landmark 1.11 billion app user market in 2015, twice as huge as compared to 2012. This growth is precipitated by the rise of smartphone ownership and mobile internet users. As highlighted by a new white paper commissioned by Smaato, one in five mobile users will own a smartphone by end of 2013, with mobile internet user market hitting the one billion mark by 2014.

This increase in the number of app users and smartphone owners is inducing a change in the mobile advertising market. Besides big brands that typically drive such growth with their large marketing budgets, smaller brands and mobile content companies, such as app developers, are also entering the scene. App developers can now be both advertisers themselves, to attract crowds to their apps, and content publishers, who monetize their apps by selling ad spaces within these apps.

This trend signals a shift toward a more levelled playing field for app developers and advertisers of all sizes. Such inclusive development of the mobile advertising market can be attributed to sophisticated mobile advertising technologies available these days that lower the barriers of entry for smaller brands and app developers.

“Asia’s growth momentum is bound to pick up with the decreasing cost of smart devices and the development of telecommunication infrastructure alongside the next wave of 4G mobile standards,” said Smaato Managing Director of Asia Pacific, Marcus Tan. “Smaato is dedicated to constantly innovate and deliver the best mobile advertising technologies to Asia through our global connections, to actualize mobile advertising’s largest value in Asia.”

Other key highlights of the white paper, Asia’s Mobile Advertising Marketplace Has Gone Full Circle, commissioned by Smaato with latest research released by mobileSQUARED:
 Mobile subscription in Asia will amount to 2.57 billion in 2012, equivalent to one-third of world’s population.
 Mobile banner ad spend will increase to US$ 2.6 billion in 2015 from US$ 1.85 billion in 2012.
 Number of app users will rise to 1.11 billion by the end of 2015, equivalent to 32% of total mobile subscriptions and 77.6% of mobile internet users.
 Approximately 16% of mobile advertising campaigns in Asia are rich media-based campaigns, with a few countries such as Australia and Japan, whose mobile advertising campaigns are 40-45% rich media-based.
 The click-through rate of rich media-based mobile advertising campaigns is approximately 0.8%, at least double that of standard mobile banner ad campaigns.

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