We’ve just reached another exciting milestone here at AdMob… over 100 billion ads served!  We realize that this number is hard to conceptualize, so for perspective 100 billion is:

• 14 times the entire world population in 2008
• 107 times the distance in miles from the earth to the sun
• One half to one fourth (depending on which scientist you believe) of the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy

In a nutshell, it’s a big number.  Although this growth has happened quickly over the last three years, there was a lot involved in taking us from our humble beginnings to this incredible milestone.  Here are a few highlights:

But we couldn’t do this alone. We have had the opportunity to work with many innovative advertisers, agencies, app developers and mobile web publishers; some just getting started and some with the most exciting brand names in advertising, all of whom had the foresight and vision to try something new and explore the rapidly growing world of mobile. And what has made this adventure even more exciting for us has been growing alongside the explosion of smartphone devices that have redefined the mobile ecosystem.  Mobile has gone mainstream and the developments we’ve seen have been simply staggering:

• In June 2009 AdMob served ads on more than 16 million unique iPhone and iPod touch devices worldwide (source: June 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report)
• Smartphone shipments worldwide are projected to grow 13% in 2009 to 164 million units (source: Forward Concepts, Smartphone & Chip Market Opportunities: An in-Depth, Global Analysis of Smartphones, Chips & Operating System, February 2009)
• In 2008, the estimated number of mobile subscriptions quickly outpaced PC internet users.  Mobile subscriptions exceeded 4 Billion vs. 1.5 Billion PC internet users (source: International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an agency of the UN)

What else has changed?

The evolution of the mobile web
Not that long ago, mobile used to mean simple WAP sites or worse, trying to view a traditional website with a sub-par transcoded experience.  Remember how fun it used to be to squint your eyes to try to read web sites intended for PC viewing as they slowly appeared on your old flip phone?  Mobile websites have come a long way since then and now provide a rich user experience optimized specifically for mobile.

The introduction of the App
By creating a highly engaging (and addictive!) user experience, click-through rates for advertisers in our network have soared to unprecedented levels while new business models have emerged for developers to monetize their apps.

More and more people are getting smart (with a smartphone) and mobile has become a real medium for advertisers & publishers.  No longer for just early adopters, as smartphones have become mainstream, having a strong presence in the mobile landscape has become essential for both mainstream brands and emerging developers alike.

Whether you are an AdMob advertiser, agency, app developer, mobile web publisher, mobile evangelist, or simply a dedicated smartphone user… we thank you for supporting AdMob and participating in the mobile ecosystem we’ve created together.  We are excited to have reached this milestone and certainly could not have done it without you.

The AdMob Team