New Mobile Statistics: Search & Local
February 25, 2009 by Michael Durwin
Filed under Marketing & Advertising, Trends, Facts & Figures
The Kelsey Group released new research statistics centering on mobile, specifically local and online. Kelsey’s Mobile Local Media Forecast (2008-2013) shows a 130.5% growth rate for local mobile search and an 81.2% growth for overall mobile ad revenues.
Search and display revenues are projected to jump from $160 million in 2008 to $3.1 billion by 2013.
Local search advertising is expected to jump from $20 million to $1.28 billion over the same time frame.
The upshot of this information is that while mobile use is certainly growing, be it gaming, multimedia use, or banking, the largest growth is local. What does this mean for local business? They can’t keep phoning it in! Small and medium local businesses are far behind large businesses in their attention to online marketing. While 82% of consumers use search engines for local business information, those local businesses focus less than 10% of their marketing budget toward web strategies. It will be important for them to start thinking broader, if not bigger. There are a plethora of location based tools being launched on a weekly basis for mobile, specifically the iPhone that are starving for content. While businesses should be looking at mobile strategies, those development companies need to be approaching small and medium size businesses with localized offerings, not just going after the Walmarts of the world.
Mobile is in upheaval. Great growth is anticipated, yet even basic mobile sites aren’t available for most retailers. This is something that inspired a bit of a rant from me recently considering I couldn’t find one retailer with a mobile site but I have one!
Mike Boland’s “Going Mobile: The Mobile Local Media Opportunity” claims that searches for local information at 27.8% in 2008 is expected to grow to 35.1% by 2013. The revenue from these searches was already at 50.3% in 2008 and expected to continue to grow to 56.1% by 2013.
According to Boland,we can expect to see a growth from 54.5 million mobile webusers to 63.6-73 million just this year, with a growth of handsets from 266.4 million to 274.7 million. With only a quarter of mobile users accessing the web, you have to ask yourself, why such a low percentage? There are a few possibilities: confusing or expensive data rate plans, lack of knowledge, or lack of mobile presence. While lack of knowledge about mobile Internet access is rampant, only telecoms and businesses themselve are to blame for lack of presence and high prices.
While the nuymber of handsets will most likely plateau by 2013 as most experts expect a saturation point, phones will continue to improve as multi-tasking devices and more users will be accessing more features. Just this next year mobile ad revenues are expected to double to $330 million, $720 million in 2010, $1.54 billion in 2011, and $2.26 billion in 2012. U.S. mobile search ad revenues alone are expected to grow from $20 million in 2008 to $242 million in 2010, $564 million in 2011, and $905 million in 2012.
It’s a good time to be in the mobile industry. Are you?
Thank you for such a helpful and informative article.
Statistical data put to good use. I found this article to be very informative and useful. As a marketing consultant for a mobile website design company, I spend a lot of time sifting through statistics and trends. I look for real market indicators and mobile user behaviors that are relevant to the conversation I have quite often with business owners who have yet to establish a mobile web presence. This article is a great resource. Thanks.