Spending on mobile ads will more than double in 2013

NEW YORK » Research firm eMarketer expects spending on mobile advertisements to hit nearly $9.6 billion in the U.S. this year, up from $4.4 billion in 2012 and from less than $1.6 billion in 2011 as Facebook and Google barrel ahead.

Mobile ads now represent nearly 23 percent of the money companies spend on ads people see on their computers, tablets and mobile phones. That’s up from about 12 percent last year and less than 5 percent in 2011. Facebook, which began showing mobile ads in 2012, and Google, which has by far the biggest share of the digital advertising market, account for much of this growth. EMarketer expects Facebook Inc. to surpass Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. in digital ad revenue this year, trailing only Google Inc.

Google is expected to take a 40 percent share of the digital ad market this year, compared with 7.4 percent for Facebook, 5.9 percent for Microsoft and 5.8 percent for Yahoo, according to eMarketer.