BANGALORE: For the first time, Android advertising revenues have been higher than iOS mobile ads. Opera Mediaworks, the company doing the measuring said that Android collected 45.8 percent of ad revenue compared to 45.4 percent by iOS.

Despite having lower margins, Android won over iOS because of the explosive growth in the number of Android phones in recent years. According to IDC, a market research firm,   Android has around 81 percent of the worldwide smartphone market; a much bigger share than iOS, which has 15 percent. IDC reported in March that spending for global mobile advertising will rise from $28 billion in 2014 to $88 billion in 2018.

Publishers on the Opera platform earned nearly 1 billion in revenues last year. The company’s report also revealed some other tidbits about mobile ad revenues.  The reports suggest, U.S. has the largest number of mobile ads, almost 43 percent in all geographic regions and countries. The Apple iPad is reported making the highest ad revenue per single viewing, and the number of video ads has increased by more than five times in the last year, from 2.5 percent of all ad impressions to 12.8 percent.

Operas mobile ad services are used by up to 90% of the top advertisers in the world. The system serves ads to 850 million mobile users on over 18,000 websites and mobile applications.

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