According to the projections put forth by research firm EMarketer, the US mobile advertising revenue of Facebook will likely quintuple in 2013; but the popular social network still has a long way to go before it can become a mobile ad powerhouse.

Going by the EMarketer estimates, a total of nearly $387 million in US revenue will be generated by Facebook from ads on mobile devices nest year; thereby accounting for approximately 9 percent of the overall mobile ad sales in the country.

Further projecting that Facebook will apparently report nearly $73 million in US mobile ad revenue – that is, 4 percent of the overall US market for mobile ads – this year, EMarketer has estimated that Facebook will probably grab almost 10 percent of the US mobile ad market by 2014.

Despite the fact that Facebook has taken quite a while to take advantage of the ever-growing mobile market, the EMarketer projections place the company in a second spot in the mobile ad business, right behind Internet search giant Google, which currently holds nearly 55 percent of the market.

However, pointing out that Facebook is still far from achieving the status of a mobile ad biggie because the social network has just started to reinvent itself as a “mobile first” company, EMarketer analyst Debra Williamson said that the growth of Facebook’s mobile ad business can be characterized as "steady progression,” and added: "Facebook is not going to transform into a mobile advertising powerhouse overnight.”