U.S. mobile advertising market revenue will grow to $3.1 billion in 2013, up from $160 million in 2008, representing a growth rate of 81.2 percent, according to the Kelsey Group, a division of BIA Advisory Services. During the same period, the firm forecasts mobile local search advertising revenues will increase from $20 million to $1.3 billion, a growth rate of 130.5 percent.
“As mobile data consumption rises, we expect local marketing to be a big winner,” said Michael Boland, program director, Mobile Local Media (MLM), The Kelsey Group. “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.”
The Kelsey Group’s Mobile Local Media Forecast (2008-2013) is highlighted in the report, “Going Mobile: The Mobile Local Media Opportunity,” distributed to clients of the firm’s new MLM advisory service. The report also says the percentage of mobile searches that have local intent will increase from 28 percent in 2008 to 35 percent in 2013, there are 54.5 million mobile Internet users in the United States, representing 25 percent of online users, and roughly 15 percent of iPhone applications are local.
