For the First Time, Android OS Is No. 1 Position for Mobile Ad Traffic

SAN MATEO, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 22, 2014) - Just a few months into 2014, the mobile advertising industry is already showing signs of big shifts in mobile traffic and monetization patterns. Android has, for the first time, become the biggest platform globally for mobile ad traffic surpassing iOS, according to Opera Mediaworks' Q1 2014 State of Mobile Advertising report.

Android phones crept up to take the majority market share from the iPhone at the end of 2013, but traditionally iOS as a platform has always captured the most traffic. Now, for the first time, the Android OS has the most traffic (42.8% vs. iOS's 38.2%) -- and it is slowly increasing its mobile ad monetization as well, now accounting for over 33% of revenue compared to 26.7% at this time last year.

Among device makers, Samsung came out the clear winner in the Android devices market with more than 60% of impressions, followed by LG, Motorola, HTC and ZTE.

In the United Kingdom, however, iOS is still the leader, capturing 55% of ad impressions and a whopping 66.9% of ad revenue. Overall, based on ad requests sent to the Opera Mediaworks platform, iOS devices are 62.3% of U.K. unique users, with Android at a mere 18.6% and BlackBerry still alive in the market at 14%.

Other highlights from the report's deep look at the U.K. market:

• U.K. mobile users vastly favor mobile apps over mobile web. Mobile apps account for 72% of ad impressions, in contrast to the global market where apps comprise just 31% of overall use.
  
  
• News & Information and Sports are the most popular categories in the U.K. Opera Mediaworks' global audience prefers Social, Arts & Entertainment and Music, Video & Media sites.
  
  
• Rich media ads are the most effective. Click-through rates on rich media ads are nearly double those of regular banners, and much of the success is due to the popularity of mobile video ads. About 1 in 7 mobile ads (1 in 3 rich media units) are video, whereas globally they account for 1 in 40.
  
  
• Sony's PS4 ads set the bar for unencumbered call to action. Campaign data shows that once a consumer engages with a video ad unit, each additional action required to view the ad lowers the completion rate for the video. Sony recently ran a video ad campaign that allowed consumers to get right to the brand's most compelling content.
  
  
• Ads for games and mobile phone devices lead the U.K. ad space. Advertisers for games enjoy the highest click-through rates (CTR) and mobile device ads account for the greatest number of impressions served.
  

Turning attention back to the global stage, in Q4 2013, impression data showed Asia jump in front of Europe as the second largest mobile ad market, after the U.S. This quarter it has strengthened that lead and now accounts for 23% of global impressions compared to Europe's 13.5%.

AdAge first covered this research in its story Google's Android Catching Up to Apple in Race for Mobile Ad Dollars by Mark Bergen. For the complete report from the first quarter of 2014, see http://operamediaworks.com/insights.

About Opera Mediaworks

Opera Mediaworks powers the mobile ad economy through technology innovation, transparency and trust, to create vibrant marketplaces for publishers and advertisers across the globe. This enables advertisers to efficiently reach their target audience and publishers to improve their monetization. Opera Mediaworks operates the world's biggest brand-focused mobile ad network, serving 23 of the 25 top global brands. We also deliver the world's leading mobile ad server and monetization tools to 17 of the top 25 media companies worldwide. Our mission is to deliver relevance in the medium where it matters most -- on mobile devices.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, Opera Mediaworks has offices in New York, United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Russia, Ukraine and Norway. Opera Mediaworks is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Opera Software ASA, which is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera Mediaworks at www.operamediaworks.com.