Android based phone drives majority of mobile ad traffic

NEW DELHI, INDIA: As the New Year takes hold, Opera Mediaworks today released insights about mobile advertising in the last quarter of 2013 that point to yet another growth year for the industry.

To start, the company found that in the three days around Christmas (December 24, 25 and 26), the number of smartphones and tablets, increased by 13 in the United States and 22 per cent in Europe, reflecting strong sales of these devices during the holiday season.

Overall, Opera Mediaworks has seen a significant increase in global ad traffic year over year, and now reaches over 425 million consumers, while serving over 60 billion impressions a month.

Additional findings according to Opera Mediaworks:

* Revenue from iOS still sky-high, but Android now drives majority of mobile ad traffic to phones. In Q4, iOS devices captured 56 per cent of revenue, up from 50 per cent in Q3. However, when comparing iPhone to Android phone traffic, Android tops out with a nearly 36 per cent share (vs. iPhone's 28.7 per cent).

* Social networking sites and apps are the most popular. Traffic volume for social networking services was the highest, at 34.25 per cent of all global traffic. The Music, Video & Media category followed, with 17.7 per cent of traffic; this category took the top spot for revenue generation (20.6 per cent) as consumers continue to use their mobile devices more for streaming music and watching videos. Arts & Entertainment sites and apps captured 18.2 per cent of revenue.

* Mobile ads for movies and entertainment events soared over Christmas.While consumers may have been seeing more ads for products with gift potential in the weeks leading up to the holidays, Entertainment advertisers took over as soon as Christmas week hit. Nearly 1 in 3 ads during the vacation period were for movie, music and entertainment events. Food & Drink followed, with 17 per cent of the ads being for products and services in this category.

* Brazilian mobile ad market leaps up the global charts; audience is differentiated by device type, behavior.Well in advance of World Cup 2014, Brazil's mobile audience has grown to a size on par with other significant markets, like Canada, Mexico and Australia. Now the 7th largest market, these consumers are predominantly on Android (47.6 per cent vs. iOS 14.9 per cent) and are heavy social network users, with 40 per cent of traffic going to sites and apps in the Social category.

"2013 was a tremendous year for mobile advertising. At agencies, mobile campaigns moved from the back burner to the front and rich media ads replaced boring banners. Many publishers found their smartphone and tablet traffic eclipse their desktop internet traffic, and a some even made more money from mobile advertising when compared to desktop," said Mahi de Silva, CEO, Opera Mediaworks.

"With a 13 per cent jump in the growth of new devices during Christmas just in the U.S., we expect even more growth in 2014. We anticipate the global media spend on mobile advertising will make up 20 per cent of all digital advertising worldwide in 2014," added Silva.