Sales of mobile content, including apps, games, video and TV, along with mobile browsing and ad revenue, raked in $161bn during 2012 alone, but the market will break the $200bn barrier in just three years.

Mobile advertising revenue will more than triple during this time, the Strategy Analytics Global Mobile Media Forecast says, to exceed $42bn by 2017, or 18 per cent of total mobile media expenditure.   

“Mobile is becoming a core part of digital advertising with companies like Google making it easier for advertisers to deliver ads to mobile devices,” said David Kerr, VP at Strategy Analytics. “Facebook also reported 30 per cent of its digital ad revenue derived from mobile, which underlines advertiser demand to test and experiment with well-targeted mobile inventory provided by popular social networks.”

Despite worries from operators about OTT services, the report found that 62.5 per cent, or $100bn, was taken in data revenues last year. Greater media consumption over the next three years, particularly in emerging markets, will mean more data usage too, of course.