Google gets aggressive on mobile advertising

About six months ago, then-Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt proclaimed the company's Android mobile operating system could someday drive revenues exceeding $10 billion a year, galvanized by advertising and digital content downloads. "If we have a billion people using Android, you think we can't make money from that?" Schmidt told The Wall Street Journal last August, explaining Google could eventually earn $10 billion annually at a rate of $10 per Android user per year. When Schmidt made his prediction, Android represented 19.6 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, according to digital research firm comScore--this week, comScore reported that at the end of 2010, Android accounted for 28.7 percent of the American smartphone market, surpassing Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s iOS (25.0 percent) for the first time and moving within striking distance of current market leader Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry (31.6 percent, down from 37.6 percent in August).

Android's continued surge means Schmidt's revenue forecast no longer seems nearly as far-fetched as it did just months ago. In fact, Google is now on pace to rake in more than $1 billion in Android advertising revenues in 2012, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. In a research note published Tuesday, Munster writes that Android yielded mobile ad revenues of $5.90 per user in 2010, anticipating that number will increase to $9.85 per user in 2012; the analyst also expects in-app advertising across Android Market applications will boost monetization per user in the months ahead. Munster believes Android users will reach 133 million by next year, translating to ad revenues of about $1.3 billion; Google generated $850 million in total mobile revenue in 2010, with Android accounting for about 16 percent, or $130 million, Munster notes. Analysts believe Google's total revenue for 2012 will surpass $31 billion.

In the meantime, Google is ramping up its mobile ad initiatives, with global head of mobile advertising Karim Temsamani aggressively reaching out to the company's top advertising customers to preach the gospel of the mobile channel. "I don't see any reason why mobile advertising won't be relevant to every single advertiser," Temsamani told Reuters late last week. At 1:05 pm EST Thursday, Google will kick off ThinkMobile, a live streaming event that "will explore some of the most significant trends in mobile and explain why it's 'not too late for businesses to still be early' in this space," Temsamani writes on the Google Mobile Ads Blog. He adds ThinkMobile will emphasize three core principles of Google's mobile ad business: Seamlessness from the desktop to smartphones; inclusiveness across formats, campaigns and devices; and the unique properties of the mobile user experience, like location awareness and click-to-call functionality. And to further underscore its commitment to the mobile platform, Google will livestream ThinkMobile to Android and iOS devices--its first U.S. event simulcast to smartphones and tablets, no less. If Google can sell businesses on mobile advertising as successfully as it sold consumers on Android, the revenue should roll right in. -Jason

P.S. Eric Schmidt will keynote the Mobile World Congress 2011 event on Feb. 15--who knows what kind of provocative statements he'll make there? Be sure to check back with FierceMobileContent all next week for live coverage and commentary direct from Barcelona.