Microsoft launches digital advertising platform

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Mumbai, Feb 21: Indian companies can now advertise on social networking sites like Facebook to attract the youth more easily. Microsoft has launched its digital advertising platform in India which will make this possible. Apart from the US, India is the first country where such a platform has been launched.

The total market size of the Indian advertising industry is around $5 billion, and online advertising is pegged at around $120 million, which is less than 1%. In the US, the online advertising industry contributes around 10% to the total market size.

“Internet users in India have increased in large numbers; it has thus become a very potent medium to reach out to a large number of audiences who are also the consumers. But the size of the online advertising industry in India is very small. Our sole aim of introducing such a platform in India is to attract more and more traditional players into online advertising and thus promote the growth of this sector further,” said Rajnish, India head, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions.

“Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions is a platform to connect the advertisers and the publishers. Moreover, it also simplifies the process of advertising online and provides advertisers to reach out to a diverse audience,” commented Rajnish.

In this venture, Microsoft has partnered with Bollywood Hungama, HDFC Sec, Equity Master and Facebook. NDTV Media is the exclusive sales partner for Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions.

“In the last one year, Facebook has shown a fabulous growth in India. Thus, it has become a very attractive platform to reach out to the youth. And now Indian companies would be able to advertise on Facebook directly through us, whereas before it was a pretty lengthy process,” commented Rajnish. “Likewise, we have also partnered with the major players in the finance and entertainment sector to mobilize the growth, and will continue to partner with players in the other sectors as well in the future,” he added.

“The digital boom is here, but there is much more to come. Our target is to get more than 750 advertisers on the platform by end of this year,” said Niraj Dutt, COO, NDTV Media.

“Advertising is the life blood of the internet. Through this platform, online advertising will become more and more targeted and advertisers will be able to reach out to the relevant target audience,” said Jaspreet Bindra, India country manager, online services, Microsoft.