InMobi Raises $8 Million in VC Funding

InMobi, a mobile advertising network company based in Bangalore, India, has raised Rs. 37 crores (about $8 million) funding with the help of venture capitalist firms like Sherpalo Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB). The company, previously known as mKhoj, has managed to raise nearly Rs. 70 crores (about $15 million) so far with the help of venture capitalist firms, which is quite a feat considering it was started only three years back.

InMobi specializes in serving ads, most of which are CPC (cost per click) ads, on mobile sites and mobile applications. The InMobi platform serves close to 17 billion ad impressions every month, of which nearly 10 billion impressions are served in the Asia Pacific region alone. It is not surprising since the company’s largest market, India, which has more than 600 million mobile phone users, and a number of other smaller markets including Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand are from this region.

InMobi plans to use these funds to expand its presence in the US, Japan, and African markets. Abhay Singhal, the co-founder of the company, stated that the company is keen on investing in technology and manpower to establish their presence strongly in these regions.

Such news, in my opinion, will send a positive signal to a lot of mobile advertising startups not just in India, but all over the world. Despite the fact that the global economy has taken a bad hit, mobile ad firms continue to attract VCs and get funds to expand their presence, which is quite amazing. It just goes to show that the number of people who believe that mobile advertising, as an industry, has a bigger and better future is growing by the day.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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JiWire’s Latest Report on Mobile Advertising

JiWire has released its latest Mobile Audience Insights Report, which talks about the latest trends and developments in the world of mobile advertising. The report takes a detailed look at the impact of mobile apps, consumer adoption of Wi-Fi technology, consumer response to location based advertising, and more.

The report is based on the responses of two thousand random customers who were picked by the company for a detailed survey. The survey was conducted from March 2010 to April 2010.

Some of the key points of the report include

• Nearly 40% of the respondents said that they are interested in using different types of mobile applications and they spend at least an hour every day using them. On average, they have 22 apps on their mobile device.

• More than 75% of the respondents said that they prefer free mobile apps that come with advertising to paid apps.

• 35% of the respondents clicked on an in-app ad, 27% visited the website of the advertiser, and 18% bought something from an ad in an app.

• 53% of the respondents said that they are willing to share their location details with a mobile advertising company to receive targeted ads on their mobile phone. More than 80% of the respondents said that they are likely to respond to an ad that is relevant to their current location.

• Games, entertainment, news, travel, weather, and social networking are some of the most preferred mobile app categories.

The report pretty much resonates with my thoughts on mobile phone advertising. A lot of people do not mind ads as long as they are relevant and non-intrusive. Moreover, an increasingly large number of people are getting comfortable with the idea of ad-funded apps and services. Add to this the fact that the number of smartphones sold on the market is increasing by the day and you can understand why experts say that the future of mobile advertising is bright.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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German Company To Try QR Code Based Mobile Advertising

Sennheiser, a Germany based audio technology company, says that its print ad on the latest issue of InTune Magazine will contain an interactive QR code linked to an application. The application contains music related content that could be useful for teachers who teach music and students who learn music.

InTune Magazine has joined hands with Didmo, a mobile business solutions provider based in Sweden, to use its custom QR codes in print ads. When a mobile user scans the QR code using his mobile phone, he will be directed to Magmito applications that contain lots of content related to teaching and learning music. It could be text, images, or audio and video tutorials.

The best part about these applications is that the content they have is not just limited for high end phones or smartphones like the iPhone. The basic content can be accessed by anyone with a mobile phone. Multimedia content like audio and video clips and certain additional features and experiences are, however, meant only for people who have high end mobile phones.

Using QR codes in mobile advertising is not exactly a new idea. It has been tried and tested by a lot of companies before. These codes, like I have already mentioned several times on this blog, bridge the gap between print content and mobile content. With interactive QR codes, you can mobilize a print ad. People, instead of visiting your website or calling your company to know more details, could just scan the code, download the application, and get more information in a matter of just a few seconds. This, needless to say, is a huge advantage for any business as it increases the response rate significantly.

The technology of QR code based mobile advertising is still in its infant stage. However, as more and more companies start to realize just how advantageous it can be for their business, we will certainly see a sharp increase in the number of QR code embedded print ads on magazines and newspapers.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Mobile Mix From Millennial Media

Millennial Media has launched a new report called Mobile Mix, which covers the latest trends in mobile devices, manufacturers, operating systems, and technology. Some of you might be aware of the fact that Millennial Media already releases a scorecard called SMART (Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting) every month, which focuses on mobile advertising. The company says that Mobile Mix and SMART will complement each other.

Millennial Media has released its fist Mobile Mix report for the month of March 2010. Given below are some of the highlights from the report.

• Apple accounted for over 40% of the ad impressions in the month of March. The company has held on to the top slot continuously for six months now.

• Manufacturers supporting Google Android enabled devices dominate the list of Top 15 Mobile Manufacturers. In fact, more than 50% of the manufacturers on the list are associated with Android powered devices.

• Mobile handheld devices like iPod Touch, iPad, and Sony PSP accounted for nearly 21% of the impressions in the month of March. This is the first time the report has mentioned something about handheld devices with mobile web facility. Earlier, it used to focus only on mobile phones.

• Android ad requests increased by a whopping 75%, which is unprecedented. RIM ad requests, on the other hand, increased by 25%.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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Greystripe Inc To Go AdMob’s Way?

It seems Greystripe Inc., a San Francisco based mobile advertising company, might go the AdMob way. Its founder Michael Chang said in a recent interview that he has been talking to a lot of what he calls ‘potential suitors’.

Started in 2004, Greystripe has been going strong for the past six years and is one of the leading rich media mobile advertising networks in the world today. It specializes in delivering full screen ads on the iPhone, Java, and Android platforms. It also serves flash ads on the iPhone using a unique transcoding technology. The company has raised nearly $18 million in venture funding and is expecting its sales to triple this year. Michael expects the company to be profitable next year.

Ever since Google bought AdMob, a lot of eyes have turned towards Greystripe, which is a competitor to AdMob. Michael Chang says that in the last two months, he has met a lot of people who have expressed their interest in buying the company. He says that a lot of people were actually interested in Greystripe even before Google’s acquisition of AdMob.

Going by what Michael Chang says, it is safe to assume that Google’s acquisition of AdMob, albeit inadvertently, has made a lot of people focus their attention on companies like Greystripe. By acquiring AdMob, Google has become the top player on the market with 30 to 40 percent market share. So, companies like Yahoo and Microsoft might try to acquire small and medium sized mobile advertising companies to consolidate their market share. Microsoft, in particular, is in dire need of a revival and I will not be surprised if they make the first move. It should be interesting to see how things unfold in the coming months.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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