Facebook's revenues from ads shown on smartphones and tablets are set to triple this year to more than $2.6 billion, or nearly 16% of overall mobile ad revenues, according to a new report from eMarketer. The research firm forecasts that mobile ad revenues overall will jump 89% this year, to $16.65 billion
The Facebook numbers track, not surprisingly, with Facebook's own. It reported second-quarter mobile ad revenues of $656 million, or 41% of its overall ad sales. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the second-quarter conference call that he expected mobile ads to produce the majority of Facebook's ad revenues before long.
The rapid growth in mobile ad revenues is a key reason why investors have become more confident in Facebook, whose shares recently closed above $40 a share for the first time. That's also a bit above the company's initial public offering price. In morning trading today, the shares were up almost 3% to a little under $41.
As a result of the mobile surge, eMarketer expects Facebook to gross $6.36 billion overall this year, up from a previous forecast of $5.89 billion.
For all that, Facebook still trails far behind
Online radio service Pandora trails with a little over 2% share, followed by YP (Yellow Pages), Twitter, and mobile ad network