In one of the largest deals in the mobile internet space in recent times, Bangalore-headquartered InMobi last month attracted funding to the tune of $200 million from Japanese internet company Softbank. Naveen Tewari, founder and CEO, InMobi, tells FE?s Debojyoti Ghosh that the company plans to enter newer markets including China and Korea to expand its global presence, set up R&D centres and is open to acquisition that adds to its existing portfolio.
In a matter of four years InMobi has managed to become a global name in the mobile advertising network and is competing with global giants like Google? How has been the journey so far?
It has been an exciting journey so far and we have enjoyed every moment of it. In the early days, the market needed a lot of education, as mobile advertising as a medium was a new concept. We have come a long way since then. Today, brands are increasingly spending their advertising budgets on the mobile medium. The mobile advertising industry is going to be a $25-billion market by 2015. We are focussed on building great products that can help us realise this huge potential and are less concerned about competition.
Our network is growing fast and now has the ability to reach 340 million consumers, in over 165 countries, through more than 47 billion mobile ad impressions monthly.
What will the company?s next move be?
We have a few things in mind. We are a global player with operations in almost all countries. We will go deeper into these markets and build deeper relationships with the players in those markets. We are eventually a technology company, and we will continue to hire great engineering talent who can build great products for the global markets. We will also continue with acquisitions to fuel our rapid growth.
Are you exploring any acquisition? What kind of portfolio interests you?
We recently acquired a US-based company called Sprout and have plans to acquire more companies. We are interested in companies that give us a technological edge ? to both move faster as well as to differentiate from competition. We don?t have a specific size in mind, and are open to exploring companies that are pre-revenue all the way to making real revenue and profits.
How is the domestic market business shaping up for InMobi?
India is an extremely important market for InMobi. Globally, we do 47 billion ad impressions per month. In India alone we do nearly 10 billion ad impressions per month. Within Asia Pacific (APAC), 4 out of 10 ad impressions come from India. That tells how large and important a market India is.
We are expanding in India driven by the growth and results we see in the market.
Going forward, which will be the key growth drivers?
We have grown five times in the past 12 months. However, mobile is still an under-penetrated market from an advertising perspective and we will continue to see the growth in that area. The ability to deliver products that meet the demands of customers globally will continue to be a key growth driver for us.
The developer community is going to be another big growth driver. The potential for the developer economy globally is anywhere between $100-$200 billion. We have also launched our mobile payment solution, SmartPay that will be another revenue and growth driver for us.