It’s no secret that native advertising has been on the rise. According to a new report from eMarketer, it has been “flourishing” across social media channels, content portals, news sites, video-sharing sites, and streaming services. It’s giving a great deal of the credit to the growth in mobile use of all of these types of services.

The firm recalls December data from BIA/Kelsey, estimating that native ad spending on social media would grow to $5 billion in 2017 (from $3.1 billion this year). They’re saying it will be as much as 42.4% of all social ad spending.

Also in December, a report from Kontera found that native advertising consumption had jumped significantly over the previous few months, going from 7% in June to 44% in November.

eMarketer reports, “For media publishers, native advertising represents an opportunity to reverse the tide of flat or declining revenues. eMarketer estimates US print ad spending will decline from $32.16 billion in 2014 to $31.29 billion in 2018. Digital ad spending on newspapers and magazines will increase to $8.41 billion by 2018, from $7.48 billion in 2014, but these gains will still leave the industry essentially flat for the forecast period. With these numbers as a backdrop, it’s easy to see why media companies are so eager to create new revenue streams through native ads.”

One very interesting takeaway from the firm’s research, as Ad Age points out, is that native ads are actually helping display sales.

In December, the IAB released its Native Advertising Playbook (which they just followed up on with the In-Image Advertising Primer).

The playbook is aimed at giving marketers a consistent framework for the discussion surrounding native ads. It was released as the FTC put them in the spotlight, and warned publishers about illegal ones.

The full eMarketer report is available here.

Image via Kontera