Online Advertising Going Mobile

Offline local media companies seem to have reached some sort of equilibrium, compared to shares of local advertising that have gone to newer players such as Google, Yahoo or Groupon, Borrell and Associates says. Some might argue that means online advertising has reached a sort of mature stage. An important stage, to be sure, but still a mature segment. 


In 44 of more than 200 markets tracked, Groupon or Autotrader.com generates more revenue than the largest local newspaper, TV or radio station online operation in that market. 

Online media accounted for $13.5 billion, or 14.9 percent of all local ad spending in 2010.

But the next big change in market shares might come as mobile advertising starts to get more traction. 

Borrell projects that mobile advertising will grow in 2012 by 17.8 percent. Without mobile advertising, “local online” (basically banners and search advertising served up on Web pages) would likely be flat for the foreseeable future, signaling the maturation of what is now a 15-year-old medium and the emergence of a new one to steal the attention. 

By 2015, the majority of all “online” advertising will become untethered from desktops and will be delivered to mobile devices such as iPads and other tablets, smart phones, and GPS-enabled laptops, Borrell predicts. 

By 2015, Borrell projects that newspapers will be toppled as king of the local advertising marketplace, ending a run that has lasted since anybody first started counting such data.

Online will, by then, be a $24 billion dollar market, representing a 22.7 percent share of all local advertising.