BusinessWeek: Not So Fast on Mobile Ads

BusinessWeek reports that mobile advertising revenues aren’t growing as fast as expected, and writes about how that could spell trouble for a bunch of venture-funded startups.

Several industry watchers, including mobile ad firm CEO Didier Kuhn, thinks that some of the projections put forth by analysts are “way too rosy.” They’re referring to the four-year, $5 billion to $14 billion forecasts we’ve reported on over the past several months:

“Realistically, no matter how often you see people checking e-mail on a BlackBerry or surfing the Web on an iPhone, the vast majority of consumers are just beginning to use their phones for functions, other than calling, that are conducive to ads. Today, only some 16% of U.S. wireless users access the Web on those devices at least once a month, according to JupiterResearch. It doesn’t help that the U.S. economy is being buffeted by the mortgage crisis and housing slump.”

Given the sheer number of mobile ad firms we’ve seen pop up out of nowhere, we’re inclined to agree with the report–there has to be some consolidation before the industry settles into a groove, particularly since the carriers won’t get out of the way.

Mobile Ads: Not So Fast [BusinessWeek]

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