Google Expected to Outgrow Apple in Mobile Display Ad Market in 2011
The mobile advertising market is ballooning, as is Google’s share of it. Of the $877 million spent on mobile advertising in the United States this year, 59 percent of it went to the search sovereign, according to an updated assessment by IDC. Meanwhile, Apple claimed just 8.4 percent share, Yahoo 5.6 percent, down from 7 percent last year, and Microsoft 4.3 percent, down from 6.3 percent.
Clearly, Google rules the mobile ad market in the States in much the same way it dominates search. That said, it’s important to note that the mobile ad market as defined by IDC includes both search and display ads and that the advertising business of some of the companies figuring in IDC’s report doesn’t extend to mobile search.
Apple, for example.
In the mobile display market, Apple claims an 18.8 percent share, which basically puts it neck and neck with Google with its 19 percent share. A short distance behind, Millennial Media has 15.4 percent. And behind Millennial, Yahoo has 10.1 percent.
And in front of them all: “Other,” with 20.5 percent (click image to enlarge).
So the leaders of mobile display advertising have yet to be decided, though Apple and Google have staked the largest claims to date. But while the the two companies are essentially tied right now, IDC’s Karsten Weide tells me Android’s growing presence in the mobile space means it will likely overtake Apple in display as well.
“Even if display was decisive for the war, I expect Google to outgrow Apple there in the coming year, primarily because Android devices will outsell Apple’s iOS devices,” Weide said. “More devices means more mobile Internet traffic, means more ad inventory that can be sold to advertisers, means more revenue. That said, search will remain more important than display in mobile and may well increase its market share even more. A lot of the mobile traffic is about finding things while being on the road: shops, restaurants, hotels…and that means search traffic, be it in traditional search queries or map searches. Google stands to benefit from this.”
