Online advertising revenue derived from desktops is expected to fall 9 percent in 2016 while online advertising on mobile devices will increase 38 percent. Mobile ad spending surpassed desktops for the first time in 2015, with Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter leading the way, and Google, Yahoo, and AOL lagging behind social media. People are rapidly turning to their smartphones and tablets, sometimes exclusively, to search the Internet, communicate, shop, and view video, rather than using desktops or laptops. The research group eMarketer reports that smartphone and tablet users spend about 80 percent of their time inside apps rather than on the Internet. The firm predicts that mobile ad spend in the United States will rise another 21 percent in 2017. To become increasingly common also are ads that appear with apps and so-called native advertising (an ad that blends in with other website content). Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have many native ads embedded in news feeds, and such sites and associated apps are mostly immune (for now) to ad blocking software. In contrast, Google is much more susceptible to ad-blocking software and Google derives 90 percent of is revenue from ads. In fact, eMarketer says Google and Yahoo’s percentage of the U.S. digital ad revenue in 2016 will drop from 17.6 to 15.7 percent.

Based on: Michele Chandler, “Online Ad Gainers: Mobile, Social Sites.” Investor’s Business Daily, December 22, 2015, p. A1.