US mobile search and display advertising revenues are expected to grow to $3.1 billion by 2013, from $160 million in 2008, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 81.2%, according to a forecast from The BIA Kelsey Group.
The firm forecasts mobile local search advertising revenues will increase from $20 million to $1.3 billion, a CAGR of 130.5%, during the same period.
The US Mobile Local Media Forecast (2008-2013) also predicts that percentage of mobile searches that have local intent will increase from 28% in 2008 to 35% in 2013, though the local total ad market (across all media) will contract in 2009 and 2010.
The shift to interactive products, combined with a lack of traffic to fulfill budget quotas on geo-targeted search products, will cause publishers to accelerate the building of mobile sites as they look for incremental traffic, The Kelsey Group said.
Michael Boland, program director, Mobile Local Media (MLM), The Kelsey Group, said: “As mobile data consumption rises, we expect local marketing to be a big winner.
“There is a strong correlation between local search and the mobile use case, which will cause a good portion of the ongoing mobile application boom to focus on local.”
A recent report found that the mobile broadband market will continue its rapid growth during the next five years and generate valuable new revenue streams for mobile network operators (see Mobile broadband market to continue its rapid growth).
According to the Analysys Mason report Mobile broadband in Europe: forecasts and analysis 2009-2014, there will be 148 million mobile broadband connections in Europe by 2014, when they will account for almost half of all broadband connections in the region.
The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), meanwhile, has released its top ten mobile entertainment trends for 2009, predicting that the mobile internet will finally come of age this year, while mobile video will also take off (see Top 10 mobile entertainment trends for 2009).
The MEF predicts that the industry will see greater pricing transparency for consumers, although mobile advertising still will not become mainstream.
