Android edges out iOS with most mobile phone ad impressions in Q4 2013

SAN MATEO, USA: 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 percent in the United States and 22 percent 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 from Q4 2013:

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

* Social networking sites and apps are the most popular. Traffic volume for social networking services was the highest, at 34.25 percent of all global traffic. The Music, Video & Media category followed, with 17.7 percent of traffic; this category took the top spot for revenue generation (20.6 percent) as consumers continue to use their mobile devices more for streaming music and watching videos. Arts & Entertainment sites and apps captured 18.2 percent 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 percent 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 percent vs. iOS 14.9 percent) and are heavy social network users, with 40 percent 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," says Mahi de Silva, CEO, Opera Mediaworks.

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