Millennial Media, Inc. (MM), Google Inc (GOOG): How This Tech Stock Will Profit From Mobile-Ad Growth

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More than 1 billion people access the web on their mobile devices today. This is the reality that advertisers have to deal with. Tablet use is growing faster than smartphones. By 2015, more people will access the Internet on mobile devices than on PCs.

In this environment, advertisers try to get as much as they can from mobile. Companies like Millennial Media, Inc. (NYSE:MM) help advertisers succeed in mobile. The company offers solutions for targeting the right audience as well as an integrated platform for mobile advertising called mMedia.

Millennial Media, Inc. (NYSE:MM)

Market is growing fast

According to eMarketer, global mobile-ad sales will grow 79% in 2013 to $15.8 billion. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is estimated to take the lion’s share of the market. The tech giant will account for 56% of market share, getting $8.8 billion of revenue. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has seen a significant rise in mobile-ad sales. The company is projected to make $2.0 billion of revenue from mobile ads, taking a 12.9% share of the market. Millennial Media, Inc. (NYSE:MM)’s revenue from mobile ads is projected to grow 71% and reach $120 million, getting a 0.8% market share.

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), of course, has the best position to dominate the market. The search giant has long ago integrated mobile options into its AdWords platform. The same clients that once targeted PC users were able to target mobile users as well. Mobile-ad rates still tend to be lower than PC ones, but the gap is closing fast as there is more competition on the mobile front. This fact in combination with the growing number of mobile users makes this field extremely interesting.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s mobile segment is, perhaps, the brightest point of the company’s business. Mobile-ad revenue accounted for 30% of the revenue in the first quarter, up from 24% in the last quarter of 2012. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is interesting for mobile advertisers because users often check their Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) pages from smartphones and tablets. The company states that users spend an increasing amount of time on mobile.

Millennial Media, Inc. (NYSE:MM) cannot fight these giants in terms of quantity, but it surely can in terms of quality. The company believes that its advantages are behavioral targeting, audience segment targeting and local targeting. Locally targeted ads are increasing faster than the overall growth rate of the market. Millennial Media, Inc. (NYSE:MM) offers developers the ability to monetize their apps, and this is the key selling point for the company.

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