Asia-Pacific Drives Over One Third World's Mobile Ad Spend

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The global mobile advertising market was valued at over $5.3 billion for 2011. The IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, IAB Europe, and HIS Screen Digest came together to size the mobile advertising market at a global and regional level.

The data shows the Asia-Pacific region holds the largest amount of money spent on mobile advertising with just over $1.9 billion in 2011, or almost 36 percent of the overall market. The Asia-Pacific region seems to have a strong hold on the top of the mobile ad spending market, accounting for 4.5 percent more spending than North America's 31.4 percent.

Alan Heureux, president and CEO of IAB Europe commented in a statement, "Mobile has a tremendous potential as an advertising medium. This is not just a local, or even European affair. As many mobile campaigns are played out in a global ecosystem, the market we have to size spans across borders."

North America and Europe hold a combined 57.3 percent of the money spent within the mobile market. North America has spent a total of around $1.68 billion and Europe totals $1.38 billion. Other regions such as Latin America and the Middle East and Africa were also involved in the data but account for a relatively small percentage of the market with 6.7 percent combined.

The data was split up into three sub-spending categories. North America holds the top spot in the display and messaging categories of the mobile advertising market with $811 million spend on mobile search, $572 million spent on mobile display and $295 million on text messaging. However, while the Asia-Pacific region spent less than North America on display and messaging, the market spent over $570 million more on search than that region, and more than $480 million more than Europe. In all, $1.38 billion was spent on search mobile ads in Asia-Pacific last year.

As these numbers are released, look for companies to watch the IAB's numbers on mobile advertising and understanding efficient ways to spend money to reach consumers over multiple mobile platforms.

2011: Mobile ad spend in $million