The Asia-Pacific region has a strong hold on the mobile ad market, accounting for 4.5% more revenue than North America's 31.4%.
"Mobile has a tremendous potential as an advertising medium, " said Alan Heureux, president and CEO of IAB Europe. "This is not just a local, or even European affair. As many mobile campaigns are played out in a global ecosystem, the market we have to size spans across borders."
North America and Europe hold a combined 57.3% of the money spent within the mobile market. North America has spent a total of around $1.68 billion and Europe totals $1.38 billion. Other regions such as Latin America, the Middle East and Africa were also involved in the data but account for a relatively small percentage of the market, with 6.7% combined.
The data was split into three sub-spending categories. North America holds the top spot in the display and messaging categories of the mobile advertising market with $811 million spent on mobile search, $572 million spent on mobile display and $295 million on text messaging. However, while the Asia-Pacific region spent less than North America on display and messaging, the market spent $570 million more on search than that region and more than $480 million than Europe. In total, Asia-Pacific spent more than $1.38 billion on mobile ads last year.