Mobile advertising in the Arab world grew 68% last year, offering stronger revenue-generating opportunities for mobile startups in the region.

A recent report by the British Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) entitled “Global Mobile Advertising Revenue,” indicates that the global market of mobile advertising grew by 82.8% in 2012, reaching an overall market value of US $8.9 billion. $109 million of which is based in the Middle East and North Africa. While this represents just 1.2% of the global market, the rapid growth rate suggests that perhaps the region will soon take a larger share.

In recent years, Arab users purchased smartphones and accessed the internet via mobile at unprecedented levels – driving smartphone penetration levels to more than 60% in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. As smartphone usage continues to grow in the region, Arab app developers and mobile-focused startups are seeing new opportunity to reach new customers through mobile advertising. This growth also presents a great opportunity for advertisement platforms in the region, such as Hsoub, who are able to reach more and more potential customers.

According to the report, the most popular types of mobile ads in the region last year were via mobile search engines and on mobile web pages followed by advertising via SMS. The latter is gradually declining as search and display ads take over, but they are still useful in the Arab region.

On a global level, the Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing region for mobile advertising, capturing 40.2% of the total global market in 2012 (the North American market came in a close second, with 39.8% of the total global market).

Check out the full report in the grey box to the right to learn more about trends in mobile advertising worldwide.