WebProNews

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft might do well to keep their sights set on the mobile market, according to The Kelsey Group.  A fresh report forecasts that U.S. mobile local search ad revenues (along with U.S. mobile ad revenues as a whole) will increase by an astounding amount over the next four years.

"U.S. Mobile Local Search Ad Revenues will grow from $20M in 2008 to $1.3B in 2013," a Kelsey representative predicted in an email to WebProNews.  This works out to a compound annual growth rate of 130.5 percent.

 

Also, "U.S. Mobile Ad Revenues will grow from $160M in 2008 to $3.1B in 2013," yielding a less stupendous but still impressive compound annual growth rate of 81.2 percent.

Considering the economy's current state, these numbers should make the mobile market irresistible to the top search companies.  Admittedly, there's probably something of a chicken-and-egg relationship here - Kelsey's predictions wouldn't come true if they all ignored cell phones - but the draw is real enough.

Independent app developers should also benefit from the surge, as Michael Boland, The Kelsey Group's program director of Mobile Local Media, stated, "There is a strong correlation between local search and the mobile use case, which will cause a good portion of the ongoing mobile application boom to focus on local."