Google Mobile Strategy Playing Out Almost Flawlessly: Ads Growing, Android Beating iPhone

Two sets of data released today show that Google’s mobile strategy is working incredibly well, if not flawlessly. Its AdMob unit reported that it now sees more than two billion ad requests on a daily basis. And comScore also stated that, according to its survey data, Android has just passed the iPhone as the number two smartphone platform in the US.

First the comScore smartphone OS figures:

The numbers above don’t include holiday 2010. However the iPhone has largely remained flat on a percentage basis because, in the US, there’s still only one carrier (AT&T) that offers the handset. That will likely change later this month when the Verizon iPhone is announced. By contrast, Android is available from all the major carriers with a range of sexy new models being introduced at CES.

Google’s Android strategy has worked better than even Google could have imagined and hoped for. It’s crazy how successful it has been. (Cue: evil laughter.)

Google’s 2010 acquisition of AdMob boosted the company to the head of the class of mobile ad networks, with a commanding 59 percent share of all US mobile ad revenue according to IDC. In 2010 the firm sized the US mobile ad market at $877 million. Mobile paid search was almost 56 percent of that figure according to IDC’s calculation. And Google controls the overwhelming majority of that revenue, in no small part because of the proliferation of Android handsets.

Here are some of the global data points that Google released today about its AdMob network’s performance:

• The AdMob network now receives more than 2 billion ad requests per day, more than quadrupling over the last twelve months.
• More than 100 million unique Android and iOS devices requested an ad each month, nearly doubling over the last six months.
• Rapid growth is global. Nine countries in the AdMob network generated more than a billion monthly ad requests in December 2010, up from just one country a year ago.
• The strongest regional growth in monthly ad requests over the past year has come from Asia (564%), Western Europe (471%) and Oceania (363%).

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.