Bangalore: InMobi, a mobile advertising company, raised $200 million; Mobile application monetization platform Launch Money raised $1 million in seed funding: Yesware, an email app for salesperson also raised $1 million; and the mobile gaming startup MojoStreet raised $350,000. These are few of the investments raised by mobile sector in 2011. The future is too bright.

According to a report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the mobile marketing and advertising industry is expected to grow from $3.4 billion in 2010 at a compound annual growth rate of 37 percent to $22.5 billion in 2016. This will correspond to 15.2 percent of the total online advertising market or 3.8 percent of the total global advertising spend for all media.

Komli Media, an online advertising network acquired a mobile advertising platform ZestADZ to enable itself to offer digital solutions on the mobile platform along with its existing offerings. “Due to the increasing penetration of mobile and internet in the tier II and III cities, the reach of mobile advertising has gone vast. People who do not have other mediums of entertainment take the help of mobile to view movies, listen to music and surf stuffs online, thus providing scope for the advertisers to reach to the target audience at a cost effective way. We are going to see more such mergers and acquisitions,” says Harish Kumar, Director and CEO, Hypnautyx Entertainment. Hypnautyx Entertainment is a full-service production company providing complete solutions for radio/TV, mobile and others.

Previously, the companies were into short campaigns for advertising on mobile, but due to the increasing reach of the mobile sector, they have started to launch full campaigns on mobile. Today, mobile is becoming an inseparable part of media mix of advertising and entertainment, thanks to the thriving adoption of smartphones and mobile. To continue with this growth, the companies need to integrate mobile components with traditional media campaigns.

Rickard Andersson, Telecom Analyst, Berg Insight, said that brands are now progressively embracing the mobile channel, including the entire range of apps from games and entertainment to utility applications. Also mobile web advertising and opt-in SMS campaigns are popular.

The location-based advertisers are also keen on exploring the mobile advertising industry, thus coming up with different apps to entice their customers. “We see a lot of applications being launched everyday by mobile VAS providers, but what about the attrition rate. It is important not only to provide a useful app for the users to download it,but it is also essential to keep it updating with new and interesting features for long time survival,” said Kumar.

With many acquisitions being seen in the mobile marketing industry and further consolidation is expected to bring about an ecosystem for the emerging startups to show their talent and innovation in the field of mobile through advertising and VAS sectors.