The growth in mobile local advertising is presenting Pandora with new opportunities to drive revenue as listening continues to migrate to smartphones.

Pandora?s mobile revenues grew 101 percent during the first quarter as the number of local advertisers looking to reach consumers via their smartphones and tablets continues escalates. In particular, the company reports that it has seen significant success bringing auto dealers onto the platform on a local basis and that it expects this area to continue to grow.

?Because mobile is well suited for local advertising, this segment of our business is growing quickly,? said Joseph Kennedy, chairman, CEO and president of Pandora, Oakland, CA, during a conference call with analysts to discuss its fiscal first quarter results.

?A recent report from BIA/Kelsey forecasted a seven fold rise in mobile local media by 2017 to 9.1 billion from 1.2 billion in 2012, a nearly 50 percent compound annual growth rate,? he said.

?Our strong listener presence in local radio ad markets combined with our mobile advertising capabilities have accelerated our opportunities to grow our local advertising dollars.?

Pandora announced in March that Mr. Kennedy will be stepping down and that the company is looking for a replacement.

140 million mobile users
Pandora is the company that it is No. 1 in terms of listening in most local radio markets. To capitalize on this trend, it has deployed ad sales people in 28 of the top 40 local markets.

Pandora surpassed 200 million users in April, with over 140 million accessing the site via mobile.

Pandora?s mobile revenues ? including advertising and subscription based revenue, grew 101 percent during its fiscal first quarter for a total of $867.7 million. A dvertising revenue per 1000 ad supported listener hours, or RPM, totaled $26.15 in the first quarter compared to $19.16 in the first quarter last year.

The company continues to build out it services, many with a mobile angle. During the quarter, it introduced an ad-free version for Windows 8, a new Timeline App for Facebook and introduced Premieres, which enables listeners to access to early album releases.

Following Pandora?s introduction of a 40-hour listening limit for mobile users in March, the company saw an increase in total active listeners and a deceleration in total hours streamed, enabling it to better manage content acquisition costs with minimal impact on listening or revenue growth.

Mobile a core focus
Key results from the first quarter include that Pandora added more than 700,000 net new subscribers to Pandora One, its subscription service, which is more than was added in all of fiscal year 2013.

Of Pandora One?s over 2.5 million subscribers, almost half have been generated on mobile devices.

Other key results include that total listener hours for the quarter grew 35 percent year-over-year, reaching a record high of 4.2 billion hours for the quarter. Active users also reached a new high, totaling 70.1 million, up 35 percent from a year ago.

Overall, Pandora's share of all U.S. radio as of April 30, 2013 was 7.33 percent, up from 5.86 percent a year ago.

?Mobile monetization continues to be a core focus and our RPM growth is a clear demonstration of the progress we have made,? Mr. Kennedy said.

?First, our mix of listener hours and ad revenue continues to ship towards mobile,? he said.

?Listening on mobile and other connected devices represented 79 percent of total listener hours during the first quarter and revenue generated from mobile represented two-thirds of Pandora's total revenue.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York