MUMBAI: Twitter is expected to earn more than half-billion dollars in ad revenue in 2013 and nearly $1 billion next year due to a surge in mobile advertising on its microblogging service, according to a report. Twitter projects incremental growth from mobile advertising over the next two years.

Research firm eMarketer has estimated that the company will earn $582.8 million in global ad revenue in 2013 before nearing $1 billion next year. The report predicts that Twitter will earn $308.9 million in mobile ad revenue in 2013-which is more than the company earned in total, from any ad type, in 2012, when it made $138.4 million from mobile ads.

According to the forecast, mobile ads will account for more than half of Twitter's ad revenues—about 53 percent this year, up from virtually no ad revenue from mobile in 2011.  By 2015, Twitter is expected to pull in $1.33 billion in worldwide ad revenue, more than 60 per cent of which will come from mobile advertising.

The report states that the upward revision comes as advertisers have shown more interest in spending money on mobile advertisements on Twitter. “Twitter has ultimately benefited from the increased focus on mobile by competitors like Google and Facebook, which have both expanded their own mobile ad offerings and worked to convince advertisers to shift dollars to mobile devices,” the report read.

Twitter also continues to benefit from what has been termed the ‘native’ nature of its ad products, whose integration with the core user experience of the platform allows the company to deliver similar ads seamlessly across multiple devices at high volume. It also means the company has been able to build its mobile advertising business quickly.

The bulk of Twitter's ad revenue is expected to continue to come from the US—about 83 percent this year, down from 90 percent in 2012. By 2015, Twitter’s continued expansion of foreign sales operations is expected to help non-US ad revenue reach $319 million, up from just under $100 million this year.

eMarketer said its revenue forecasts are based on analysis of reports that track media buying trends, Twitter usage data and interviews with executives at advertising agencies, online publishers and others. Twitter, based in San Francisco, is privately held and does not disclose financial figures.