NEW YORK – A research firm says it expects Facebook’s mobile ad revenue to soar this year, hitting nearly $1 billion a year after the company started to splice ads into its users’ mobile phones and tablet computers.
Wednesday’s forecast came a day before Facebook holds an event to unveil a new Android product. Speculation has centered on a mobile phone, made by HTC Corp., that deeply integrates Facebook into the Android operating system. The move comes as Facebook works to evolve from its Web-based roots to a “mobile-first” company, as its mantra goes.
EMarketer said it expects Facebook Inc. to reap $965 million in U.S. mobile ad revenue in 2013. That’s about 2.5 times the $391 million in 2012, the first year that Facebook started showing mobile ads.
More than half of Facebook’s 1.06 billion monthly users access it on a mobile device.Shares of Facebook rose 83 cents, or 3.3 percent, to close Wednesday at $26.25. The stock is down about 1 percent since the start of the year.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.