Large scale social platforms are benefiting greatly from the rapid shift to mobile, according to Colin Sebastian from RW Baird. He writes that recent “field checks” suggest that Twitter and Facebook have excellent financial visibility in the first half of 2014, controlling almost 70% of spending being done on mobile and approximately 10% of overall advertising.
Sebastian also says that, as far as its mobile properties are concerned, Facebook is not only improving monetization but also increasing their and spending.
He writes: Our checks for Facebook suggest that Mobile newsfeed ads and App Install Ads in particular continue to ramp quickly, contributing to strong Y/Y growth, despite normal Q/Q (seasonal) variances. Moreover, Facebook’s tweaks to the news feed algorithm appear to favor paid postings at the expense of “organic” postings, likely driving higher levels of spending on the site. As such, our checks reinforce a positive bias on the stock, with upside potential to our Q1 revenue and EPS estimates of $2.35 billion and $0.23, respectively.
That’s excellent news for Facebook and shows that they still remain the dominant force in mobile ads.
Sebastian also reported that Twitter is increasing its share of ads as well.
He writes: Our checks also suggest that Twitter continues to ramp in share of ad spending, albeit with a focus on integration with “mass media” channels such as cinema and television. While secular tailwinds, Mobile shift and quick pace of product innovation should provide plenty of runway for growth, near-term stock sentiment will be driven by the potential stabilization in the Q/Q user growth rate due to the number of annual (e.g., Super Bowl) and one-time (e.g., Sochi Olympics) events drawing more users.
Good news for Twitter as well, proving that mobile advertising is strong and continues to get stronger as ad spending increases with both social media giants.