Yahoo’s U.S. mobile advertising revenues are poised to overtake Twitter’s in 2015, making the tech giant a viable player in the highly competitive market, according to a forecast from eMarketer.
Yahoo reported its mobile revenues for the first time in the third quarter of 2014 and will take nearly 3.2% of the $18.99 billion US mobile advertising market in 2014.
Emarketer predicts that in 2015, Yahoo’s US mobile ad revenues will jump from 3.2% to 3.74% of the total U.S. mobile advertising market. This would push Yahoo past Twitter, which is predicted to have a 3.69% share in 2015.
U.S. mobile ad spending will grow 50% next year to $28.48 billion and another 41% to $40.16 billion in 2016, according to the forecast.
Despite the robust growth, Yahoo still faces many challenges in mobile.
"Yahoo’s growth in mobile is a very positive development for them as they try to play catch-up, but these revenues are growing from a small base, and Yahoo’s overall ad business is still struggling," said Martin Utreras, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer in a statement.
"They’ve trailed their competitors while taking a long time to monetize mobile, and these revenues are still muted in relation to the size of their mobile audience," he said.
While Yahoo is gaining a foothold in the mobile ad space, eMarketer predicts a rush of new entrants into the market next year, which could also eat into Facebook and Google’s dominant share.