Driven by Mobile: Social, Search, and Publishing Captive Ad Platforms Expected to Grow 150% from 2015 to Reach US$111 Billion in 2020

​Major companies acting worldwide in the captive advertising space—namely Yahoo, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, AOL, and IAC—are competing for advertising revenue across display and search markets, including the mobile market. “The mobile market is the key focus for companies serious about advertising,” says Eric Abbruzzese, Research Analyst at ABI Research. “Consumers are continuing to switch to a mobile-centric lifestyle, so those that capitalize on the mobile advertising market early will benefit the most.”

The mobile advertising market is forecast for 16% CAGR from 2015 to 2020, compared to the total advertising market at 11% CAGR. The mobile market could grow even stronger than forecast depending on the development of performance advertising within mobile, as well as international ad markets increasing CPM. While not currently a majority source of revenue, mobile advertising will likely be responsible for more than 50% of total advertising revenue in the next few years. Twitter and Facebook have the largest mobile user base, and have seen the strongest mobile advertising revenues. All of the above companies continue devoting internal resources and making acquisitions to capture their share of mobile advertising.

ABI Research Practice Director Sam Rosen adds, “While Google dominates the search advertising sector, AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft hope new branding and product integrations can help them gain some share of the search market at Google’s expense. Display advertising is a much more equal market, with Facebook and Google close competitors for leading market share at about 25% each. In the international market, companies including Baidu, Naver, Sohu, Yandex, Tencent, and Yahoo Japan are also significant factors.”

These findings come from the Captive Advertising Market analysis, which looks at major advertising companies and their current and future standing in the market. It is part of ABI Research’s Cloud Content and Services Market Research.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.