Four years ago, people were hesitant that mobile advertising spending would ever gain traction. Today, however, it would be absurd to suggest that mobile advertising isn’t the way of the future.
On April 2, eMarketer released their new worldwide ad spending report with some bold predictions about the future of global ad spending in relation to mobile smartphones and tablets. In the report, eMarketer estimates that mobile ad spend will surpass $100 billion dollars globally in 2016. That means, for the first time ever, the global mobile advertising market will constitute over 50% of all digital ad spending.
The $101.37 billion expected to be spent in 2016 is a 430% increase in mobile ad spending since 2013, and the growth doesn’t stop there. Over the next few years, from 2016-2019, eMarketer predicts that mobile ad spending will almost double to $195.55 billion. If their forecasts are correct, that would mean mobile ad spending would account for just over 70% of digital ad spending — ¼ of total media ad spending around the world
The growth in mobile ad spending, as you probably expect, is a result of the rising consumer interest in mobile devices. As emerging markets begin to access the internet firstly (and sometimes only) on mobile, the number of smartphone users will rise to more than 2 billion within the next year. Even more interesting, one quarter of all smartphone users will live in China. China and the US, two of the leading global markets, will lead the growth of mobile ad spending in 2016, together making up about 61% of the entire market.