Twitter on track to earn nearly $1B next year on ad revenue alone

Twitter Mobile
How do you say one billion in 140 characters?

With the emergence of smartphones as the go-to mobile device of choice, more and more people have taken to using social networking sites like Twitter on the go.

Twitter is already seeing some large improvements in its ad revenue, but the new mobile dynamic could change the game for the site quite drastically.

Though the company's overall ad revenue wasn't impacted much at all by mobile ads in 2011, there was a tremendous spike over the past year.

Now, not only is Twitter expected to rake in major dollars from advertising, but mobile ads are estimated to account for 53 percent of all ad revenue.

Market research firm eMarketer is already predicting Twitter will make $582.8 million (UK £385.6M, AU $558M) in ad revenue this year, with $308 million (UK £203.8M, AU $295M) coming from mobile.

Through 2014 and 2015, that mobile share is expected to increase to nearly 60 percent, with total revenues reaching $950 million (UK £628M, AU $909.6M) in 2014 and $1.33 billion (UK £879M, AU $1.27B) in 2015.

For comparison, in 2012 Twitter made just $138.4 million (UK £91.4M, AU $132.5M) from mobile ads.

The company's global reach is also expected to increase over the next few years, with the U.S. share decreasing from 2012's 90 percent to 83 percent in 2013, and all the way down to 70 percent by 2015.

Twitter's new ad API should only help make advertising easier, and thus generate more income for the network, and it will be interesting to see just how closely these new estimates are when all is said and done.

Via CNET