Company Name	Findable
Mission	With Findable we hope to make offline shopping as easy as online shopping.  We want to create a Google for products available near us, so that we could easily find out what's available where and get it quickly, instead of having to go from store to store.
Overview	Findable is India's leading local shopping platform, currently having over 100,000 products, and more than 1,500 brands on the platform that users can browse through, and order. Findable works with India's top retailers and brands, including large national retailers and brands such as Bebe, Mango, AND by Anita Dongre, Gucci,Wills Lifestyle, Croma, E-Zone, Nokia, Dell, Puma, Sony, Estee Lauder, Unilever, Godrej, Aditya Birla Group, Madura Brands, Future Group, Reliance Brands, and others.  Earlier this year, Findable also launched its mobile app, Findable: Local Shopping India, which is available for free download on Google Play.  Users can order any branded or everyday product and get it delivered home from a nearby store (users can specify the store as well). Findable first locates the product in stores near you, and then gets it delivered to you – all within a few hours, sometimes minutes! Products get delivered with receipts from the actual stores, so you can easily return or exchange items at your convenience. Findable has tied up with hundreds of merchants across prominent markets within these cities, including Khan Market, Connaught Place, Galleria, Defence Colony and many others. Just a few months after the launch of Findable mobile app, we have also launched a new feature branded "Findable Now": Instant Delivery of Branded and Everyday Products From Nearby Stores Within Hours!  Findable Now is the perfect solution for busy professionals, young moms, housewives, and people unfamiliar with a city – essentially those who either don’t have time to go to the nearby malls or markets, or people who just don’t know what’s available where. Users can access this feature on the web, mobile or over the phone (currently only available for users in Delhi, Gurgaon and Mumbai). Users can either order on the web at www.findable.in/now or by downloading the Findable Android App. Findable also accepts orders over the phone at +91-99201-83004. Findable’s founding team includes graduates of Harvard University, Wharton/ University of Pennsylvania, London School of Economics, Delhi University and others. India Internet Group, a US and India based early stage venture capital fund, has invested in Findable.
Launch	March 15, 2013
Founder	Anirudh Suri, Founder & CEO, Findable
Team	15
Segment	Location based shopping, Local Commerce, Mobile Commerce
Location	Delhi

Company Name	Zopper.com
Mission	To help consumers discover the right products from the right place at the right price.
Overview	Zopper helps users buy the right product. For a discerning consumer, we provide wide range of products, online prices, user reviews, structured specifications, local stores and local prices. For retailers, we enable them to expose real time inventory using our RISE system. Using RISE, retailers can drive footfalls to their store and also target local buyers. As a platform we facilitate online and local discovery of buyers and sellers only for tangible products (not services). We have the largest product catalogue in India, bordering 11 million. We have the most robust price crawling system, which crawls more than 1000 ecommerce portals and 1.4 million prices URLs every day. As of June 2014, we have more than 120,000 local stores geo-coded and on the RISE front we are growing very fast in on-boarding paid offline retailers. Being a hardcore technology company, we use proprietary technology ( Stack such as NLP, Machine Learning) to build and structured product catalogue. In our journey, we raised 3 rounds of venture capital funding; Seed round from Blume Ventures and Ventureast, Pre-Series A from Nirvana Ventures and Blume Ventures and recently we raised USD 5 Million Series A from Tiger Global.
Launch	September, 2011
Founder	Surjendu Kuila, Co-Founder, Zopper.com    Neeraj Jain, Co-Founder, Zopper.com
Team	76
Segment	Mobile phones, electronics, clothing, books, lifestyle and accessories
Location	Noida, Uttar Pradesh

 

 

Sandeep Amar is the Chief Executive Officer at India.com Web Portal Private Limited, where he is responsible for managing the P&L, strategy, sales, editorial, product management, technology, UI/UX, marketing, finance, admin and general operations of the company. 

He has spent close to two decades in the industry and is a senior digital leader in the Indian digital space today. Apart from holding leadership positions in top internet firms, Sandeep has been an entrepreneur, speaker and a leading blogger on Indian digital ecosystem.

In a candid interview with India Digital Review, Sandeep talks about the future plans for India.com and how the digital industry in India will grow in next 2-3 years. Excerpts;

Q. After assuming the role of CEO, what goals that you have set for India.com and what is your vision for India.com? Where do you want to position it in terms of focus? The new age content focus will continue as the maximum readers are from the age bracket of 15-35 years? 

 

- The goals are the same as earlier, we want to grow revenue and traffic at a rate of 70-100%. The vision is to do an IPO is 18-24 months, post we close the funding in next couple of months. Yes, our focus has been youth and it will continue to be our focus area. We are planning to start some new verticals in fashion, real estate and personal finance.

 

Q. In last two years India.com has had many new launches; from apps to data management platform to number of new websites in verticals like health, cricket, tech, travel etc., and of course international partnerships with mashable.com and others. Where are these initiatives in terms of set goals (of reach, revenue)?

 

- I think we have done very well in terms of achieving our goals. For most of the above mentioned verticals, we are number one in India. Mashable partnership is doing very well and we are well ahead of targets.

 

Q. What is India.com per page realization including ads and third party content promotion?

 

It is tough to give a number in public domain, but I can say it is north of $4 per thousand impressions (i.e., RPM of $ 4) for all ads on the page.

 

Q. Looking at the existing scenario for content based portals which area/s do you see as growth engine for future?

 

- I think trending and social viral kind of sites will do well. Vernacular and video content will also do very well.

 

Q. What is your personal take on the future of mobile app development in India apart from content apps?

 

- I think future of mobile apps is really big and it is the future of digital. Digital content, commerce, entertainment and services, everything will happen on mobile apps.

 

Q. There has been lot of buzz in India around video and vernacular to be the next growth opportunities? How do you weigh this with current consumption and future estimates?

 

- Mobile, Video and Vernacular are the 3 big opportunities. These opportunities are going to grow 5x in next 2-3 years. We are betting big on all three opportunities.

 

Q. Which metrics do you use as a publisher for insights? Any proprietary tool/s that India.com has or uses only third party?

 

- The key metrics for us are visits(sessions), UVs, PVs, bounce rate and time spent. We also measure various other metrics from usability perspective. For social viral we use Spike and Velocity. We do not have a proprietary tool - we use all third party analytics.

 

Q. What are the third party key metrics you would recommend to a marketer as you have been at the both sides? What should a marketer look for apart from reach and relevance as two key parameters for a campaign? Any tools that you would recommend for them?

 

- I think it depends what you are looking for, in terms of metrics. The key parameters for a campaign are views and view-thru traffic on the site.

 

India’s telecom regulator has barred Internet service providers from offering customers preferential tariffs to access certain content over concerns that it will violate principles of Net neutrality, and in the process, dealt a severe blow to Facebook's free data service plan - Free Basics.

 

Internet service providers, including telecom operators, are prohibited from offering discriminatory tariffs for data services based on content, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India recently said, after months of deliberation. Service providers that violate these rules will be fined Rs 50,000 per day to a maximum of Rs 50 lakh, the telecom regulator declared.

 

 

However, Trai said it may review the rules after two years.

 

The decision ends a long battle between Facebook and India's telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel on one side, and Net neutrality activists on the other. Facebook had launched an intense lobbying effort comprising full-page advertisements in newspapers, and an Internet campaign to assure people its Free Basics plan would benefit millions of poor.

 

Facebook’s Free Basics plan, launched in around three dozen developing countries, offers pared-down web services on mobile phones, along with access to the social network and its messaging services, free of cost.

 

In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said: “Our goal with Free Basics is to bring more people online with an open, non-exclusive and free platform. While disappointed with the outcome, we will continue our efforts to eliminate barriers and give the unconnected an easier path to the internet and the opportunities it brings.”

 

The basic rationale behind the regulation is that the network that carries the data should be agnostic to data packets, according to Trai Chairman R S Sharma.

 

“Anything on the Internet cannot be priced discriminately based on source, destination, content and applications. We have used the term discriminatory pricing in place of differential pricing, because differential pricing in the consultation paper had a particular context. Differential word was quite contextual in the regulation, but it was misunderstood in a very larger context. Therefore, to differentiate, we are calling it discriminatory,” he said.

 

However, Sharma said that the Net neutrality debate is not over yet.

 

“Net neutrality is a larger question, and we have not gone into that question, though, I must admit, differential pricing is looking at Net neutrality from a tariff perspective. Net neutrality has a number of other components which is fast lane, throttling and differentially treating the packet in terms of speed etc. So this is not a part of this regulation,” Sharma said.

 

Trai, which put up the consultation paper on differential pricing on December 9, asked four specific questions, broadly on whether telecom operators should be allowed to offer different services at different price points, and models that can be implemented to achieve this.

 

The regulator had later extended the deadline for comments and counter-comments on its consultation paper. For the consultation process, Trai said that majority of the individual comments received did not address the specific questions that were raised in the consultation paper.

 

Following are comments from key stakeholders on the crucial Trai verdict:

 

“India’s telecom regulator decided to restrict programs that provide free access to data. This restricts one of Internet.org’s initiatives, Free Basics, as well as programs by other organizations that provide free access to data. While we’re disappointed with today’s decision, I want to personally communicate that we are committed to keep working to break down barriers to connectivity in India and around the world. Internet.org has many initiatives, and we will keep working until everyone has access to the internet. Connecting India is an important goal we won’t give up on, because more than a billion people in India don’t have access to the internet. We know that connecting them can help lift people out of poverty, create millions of jobs and spread education opportunities. We care about these people, and that’s why we’re so committed to connecting them. Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. That mission continues, and so does our commitment to India.”

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Chief Executive

 

“BJP wholeheartedly welcomes the Trai decision on differential pricing. The decision is a clear expression of popular will. The government made sure proper processes were followed at all levels which eventually led to the victory of an open and equal Internet... It is gladdening to see that the NDA government ensured unparalleled transparency in the entire issue of net neutrality.”

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Telecom Minister

 

“Differential pricing could be useful in connecting the unconnected in India. This is an upfront disbarment. We believe that it was an appropriate tool to allow consumers who have never been on the Internet, to enjoy getting accustomed to it without getting sticker shock.”

Rajan Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India

 

“TRAI regulation on differential pricing is a welcome move. However, the association has a slight concern on the exception. The association hopes that the exceptions to the rule will not be misused by the TSPs. The exception states: ...regulation shall not apply to tariffs for data services over closed electronic communications networks.”

Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)

 

“The SaveTheInternet.in Coalition welcomes the TRAI’s regulation dated 8 February 2016 which is in favour of Net Neutrality, by putting an end to differential pricing services which would have allowed telecom operators to break the Internet and become gate-keepers and toll-collectors.”

Save the Internet

"With this notification TRAI has decided that all citizens of India will get the same view of the internet which is in line with the principle of non-discriminatory access. What remains to be done is to find innovative ways to actually get all citizens access to this internet as India's ranking in universal broadband access is abysmally poor and the digital divide continues to widen."

Arpita Pal Agrawal, Leader - Telecom, PwC India

 

“The European Union also ruled in favor of treating all Internet traffic equally. Though some of their amendments allowed for differentiation and have been a subject of intense criticism. Telecom service providers may not be happy with this notification. However, they still have the ability and freedom to create different kind of Internet access packages; as long as content is not a parameter to provide or bar access to anyone. Such practices have already started elsewhere with products such as bandwidth on demand, bandwidth calendaring etc. to create premium products. Obviously, it will require changes in network and operations but that’s where the telecom roadmap goes.”

Amresh Nandan, Research Director, Gartner

"TRAI’s decision against differential pricing is something which we heartily welcome. Start-ups like ours heavily rely on open and unrestricted nature of Internet for sustainable growth as it will be critical to drawing millions of customers, who are yet to come online, to services we offer. We have always take a strong pro net-neutrality stance and believe TRAI’s ruling will further supplement good-will generated by recent Government of India initiatives like Start-up India and Digital India Programme for motivating start-ups."

Abhinav Choudhary, Co-founder, Smartprix.com

 

• Marketing teams in India are increasingly taking the content marketing plunge and rampingup efforts to engage with customers. As they dive in though, the one big question many are asking themselves is “Should we outsource our brand’s digital content needs?” After all, marketing teamsknow the product/service best. But is product expertise enough for content marketing or does the job require #contentmarketing domain expertise? 
• 
  
• Even if there are content marketing specialists internally - and we believe this role will be among the hottest jobs in marketing - they will need the right infrastructure and tools to help them meet their goals. Hence, it might be best to start your content marketing journey by evaluating whether you should outsource your content marketing. This equally holds true for those who have started out but are discovering unexpected roadblocks. This piece in B2C has some questions you should figure out the answers to before deciding on your route to content marketing.
• 
  
• The fact remains that there are some clear benefits to partnering with a specialist content marketing outfit:  
• 
  
• Skills, Budgets & People - Content creation is a specialized skill. So is it with content planning & content distribution. The talent gap will only increase as more marketing plans include content marketing as a necessary critical layer. Some organizations may feel it is too early to resource the marketing teams with internal content specialists. In these cases, specialist outfits can add the much needed boost towards starting on the road to consumer engagement through content marketing. Even in companies where there are 2-3 content specialists, content marketing platforms and advisory services can work to achieve scale and consistency.   
• 
  
• 
  
• Writing is an art –Most people can talk, but few can communicate effectively. You need relevant expertise from content strategists and creators, and this expertise is unlikely to be found in your advertising agency. Most advertising agencies work with the brand being at the centre of the conversation. Content marketing companies will suggest that the consumer should be at the centre of the conversation. The ‘conversation’ itself may be a starter, with the brand leveraging a trending dialogue. For instance, the Indian government recently announced the first 20 upcoming smart cities in India, a huge opportunity for enterprise technology firms. But did any of these companies take this opportunity to ride the buzz created by this announcement? That would a perfect example of a conversation at the centre of a potential engagement. Creating a story from mere data,working with experienced experts who can bring a piece of content to life and catalysing consumer-centric thinking—these are some of the advantages that a content marketing company can bring to your brand.
• 
  
• Scaling content - Outsourcing content marketing needs also allows you to rapidly deploy scale and pull back when you need to. A specialist content organization can build content strategy, align your content and marketing team to a range of content creators (across several price and quality points) can add tremendous width and range to your engagement efforts. Imagine an airline wanting to create several hundred pieces of content titled ‘48 hours in XYZ’ for all the cities they fly too. With a content marketing agency and the right deployment of smart tools, marketers can potentially procure several hundred pieces of relevant content in under 24 hours. 
• 
  
• Time Versus Returns–Some believe that content marketing can be managed by hiring a couple of journalists in the marketing team. After all, journalists create great content, right? Wrong. This is as flawed anidea as hiring interns to manage a brand’s social feeds. A newsroom in a reputed media brand isn’t just about writers, but about skilled copy editors, fact checkers and Editors. Just getting in one layer will fail to recreate the magic. Consistently creating great content outcomes takes time and the right resources. While we completely second the thought of hiring content specialists within a brand team, what is more important is to arm them with the right resources and tools to raise the brand’s content engagement. Working with an outsourced content marketing company can make a huge difference.
• 
  
• The End Of The Road Syndrome– Recently, one of my colleagues met a marketer who expressed a ‘temporary interest’ in content marketing. We were told that there was a limit to the amount of content that could be created for a brand. After all, how often can a fairness cream brand talk about complexion and beauty tips? A content marketing company will see this challenge from a very different lens. A lens that throws light on the fact that a fairness cream is less about complexion and pigmentation but used more from a ‘hope’ and ‘confidence’ perspective. When you look at it that way, you realise there is no dearth of content marketing ideas. Given the TG is rather young, themes can revolve around issues like dating, job interview tips, smart dressing and more. Content allows for infinite engagement and content companies can chart this path for brands.
• 
  
• Work flow management–Content marketing companies don’t just provide content, but can manage the entire content marketing workflow for a brand. This is done by (1) outlining the objective of the content engagement, (2) drawing up of a nuanced content calendar, (3) procuring and/or aggregating content, (4) creating commissioned content, (5) curation and repurposing content (6)deploying analytics-based tools to measure engagement and (7) constant optimisation,and so on. Content marketing is thus achieved in a collaborative fashion with the brand team.Strategy is designed and content is efficiently created or procured and scientifically distributed and then optimized, helping transform the marketing function itself into a potential profit centre. 

 

Video-On-Demand could be the next big thing to satiate the entertainment quotient of India’s increasingly digital-savvy youth. What is driving this trend is Indian audiences’ rising demand for on- the-go entertainment, thanks to the rapid Internet and smartphone penetration, particularly in the urban and semi-urban settings.

Premium VOD service provider HOOQ – a joint venture between Singtel, Sony Pictures Television and Warner Bros – which entered the Indian market in the middle of 2015, is excited at the popularity of the medium.

As per a report by Research and Markets on Global Video-On-Demand Market, the industry is expected to reach $74.81 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 9.63%. North America holds the major share of market with Asia Pacific being the fastest-growing region.

 

India Digital Review’s Romit Bhattacharyya caught up with Salil Kapoor, MD, HOOQ-India, to talk on HOOQ’s India journey so far, the VOD market in the country, growth strategies and future offerings.

Edited excerpts:

• How has the Indian audience responded to HOOQ's entry in the country? Could you please share some numbers?

HOOQ has been designed to create a unique, compelling entertainment offering for consumers. We have received some great response from the consumers with our offerings living up to their needs and requirements. While we are pleased with the initial response in all our launch markets including India, our focus is more on building a healthy and vibrant ecosystem to ensure the best possible experience for the end consumer.

• What is your strategy to win over emerging markets like India?

HOOQ's mission has always been to drive the entertainment revolution exclusively for the emerging market customer. We believe a one-size-fits-all approach will not meet the needs of everyone in emerging markets. To address the emerging market customer, pricing, content, payment methods and many other factors must be tailored. On pricing, in places like India, Philippines and Thailand, entertainment must benchmark to the price of a movie ticket, and below typical pay TV alternatives.  With HOOQ, customers can get access to over 35,000 hours of movies and TV series from Hollywood blockbusters to the latest local hit TV shows, all for less than $4 per month. On content, we remain focused on the best of Hollywood with a strong emphasis on the best of local content.  It is this combination, which our target customers require. On payments, HOOQ is working across the region with mobile carriers and alternative payment providers to offer the payment mechanisms needed for the average Indian, Filipino or Thai.

• Have you had to customise your offerings for the Indian audience?

Yes, keeping the Indian audience in mind, HOOQ offers customers an extensive range of over 10,000 Indian film and TV favourites. To deliver this, we partnered with the country’s top studios, including YRF, UTV Disney, Rajshri, Reliance, Shemaroo, Sri Balaji, AP International, Whacked Out Media and over 50 other studios. Customers can watch local high-grossing films such as Chennai Express, Vishwaroopam, as well as classic cinema like Ek Duje Ke Liya and Andaz Apna Apna.

• How fruitful do you think is digital marketing in a country like India?

As a brand, we cater to a set of audience that is present on all digital platforms. Digital marketing allows you to target audience on a whole new level. India is the third largest Internet user base in the world, and with increase in smartphone usage, it is becoming a hot ground for digital marketing. A report by eMarketer states that India will overtake the US as the second largest market for smartphones by 2016, as smart mobile devices become affordable. Thus, digital marketing clubbed with social media will help us in gaining relevant insights about our audience. Since our audience is online 24*7, digital marketing initiates an increase in brand awareness through recall value.

• What are the main challenges you face in reaching out and engaging with the digital audience?

The challenge lies in blocking the attention of the audience, since the attention span is very small, considering the amount of content present online. Thus, content engagement is a key issue. Moreover, Indians are conservative by nature, and hesitate in sharing information online. It’s important to realize that social media is not just about highlighting brand updates, but also to do with driving engagement. Often identifying and reaching out to the right target audience on social media is a challenge.

• What is your total budget for marketing and promotions? How much of it is for digital?

We have a decent budget set aside for marketing, but we operate like any other start up would. We want to ensure we have all of the key pieces of the puzzle in place before launching any large marketing activity. Our marketing mix will be a judicious mix of online and offline. Suffice to say digital media will be key.

• What are some of the key marketing initiatives that you are most excited about?

It’s still very early days for us. We should have updates on the same for you shortly.

• What are the major areas of investment for the company in the near future?

We are 100% focused on providing world-class entertainment experience to our customers in India. All investments and effort will be towards ensuring this, whether it be acquiring the best of Hollywood and local content, latest technology or partnering with the right partners.

• What are the plans in terms of new offerings, especially for the Indian audience, in the immediate future?

It Is our mission to provide the best of Hollywood and local entertainment to HOOQsters in India. Some of the biggest entertainment franchises like Matrix Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Harry Potter are exclusively available on HOOQ. We are also keen to bring some of the hottest and freshest new Hollywood TV series to HOOQ.

• What do you make of Netflix's (potentially your rival now) entry into India?

HOOQ wholeheartedly welcomes the entrance of a large established player like Netflix to quicken the pace of the evolution of the OTT category, which is still nascent. Overall, HOOQ is happy that a large player like Netflix is now seeing the same opportunity we have seen. 

 

• Urban Ladder, one of India’s leading online home decor players, is betting big onthe furniture e-commerce market in India, which it believes will grow five-fold to Rs 1,000 crore by 2016.
• 
  
• The company, with a slew of new initiatives and marketing tools, harbours ambitions of becoming the country’s largest home and furniture brand in a couple of years.
• 
  
• Discussing these and much more, Urban Ladder’s Vice-President of Online Marketing, Nikhil Ramaprakash,got talking with India Digital Review’s Romit Bhattacharyya.
• 
  
• 
  
• 
• What is your take on the status of the online furniture market in India? How is Urban Ladder placed here?
• 
  
• There is immense potential in the furniture and home decor market since 85% of it is still unorganized. In the next 2 years, we want to be the largest home and furniture brand in India. The online furniture market will see huge growth in the coming years. The furniture e-commerce market in India is at Rs 200 crore at present, and is expected to grow 5 times its current size to Rs 1,000 crore by 2016.
• 
  
• We want Urban Ladder to be the preferred shopping destination for furniture and home decor products. Along with exceptional products and great quality, we want to be the brand that customers trust and love. We have achieved this so far with exceptional customer focus, and responding to customer needs, whether it is services like free assembly and delivery or taking product feedback and implementing required changes. We are confident we will continue to claim the spot of the leading online furniture company in the coming years as well.
• 
  
• How fruitful do you think is digital marketing in a country like India? 
•  
• Being an e-commerce company, the digital medium is an important element of our marketing mix. Social media tools are also becoming increasingly popular for content discovery. Digital marketing gives continuous visibility, and thus, good brand recall, andis more measurable as well. More importantly, these platforms (Facebook, Google, etc) are used almost everyday by most people, and is more personal since it gives customers a chance to interact with us.
• 
  
• What are the main challenges you face in reaching out and engaging with the digital audience?
• 
  
• Furniture is a complicated product to buy. It’s a high touch and feel product, and is non-standard. It’s also a higher ticket purchase than most other purchases. To give our customers a better experience of buying furniture, we understand that the front-end experience of the website and mobile apps should help the consumers easily discover, navigate and browse the selection of products. It should also help consumers get true and rich information around each product, and make them get a sense of both how the product looks and fits in their house. Very importantly, it should give them a sense of trust. We believe superior technology/digital solutions will help solve many problems of online, such as visualization, and touch and feel. We have launched a bunch of initiatives in this direction.
• 
  
• What is your total budget for marketing and promotions? How much of it is for digital?
• 
  
• We will not be able to comment on this.
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• How do you maximise the ROI on your marketing spends?
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• Good visuals are critical in the online marketing space, ensuring we get the attention of customers. This, supported by very targeted reach of our audience, ensures we reach the right customers. We also use organic tools such as email marketing extensively to ensure we maximise the ROI on our marketing spend.
• 
  
• How do you integrate your online and offline marketing efforts?
• 
  
• Our offline campaigns are focused on communicating the brand story and ensuring we are seen as an innovative par excellence brand. Online marketing is focused on showcasing our products and ensuring we target the right audience impacting our business.Digital marketing should be highly targeted and focused to ensure we are not unnecessarily reaching out to people not in our target audience.
• 
  
• Getting the right mix of both online and offline, and ensuring your campaign speaks for what your brand stands for is equally important.
• 
  
• How much importance do you give to social media platform when it comes to marketing?
• 
  
• All our customers are typically active users of social media, so we have stuck on social media channels with a mix of quality engagement and super-fast responsiveness. Facebook has proved to be one of our most successful marketing channels; similarly, Google and email have been quite impactful for us as well. Content discovery tools such as Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, Blogs, etc. are becoming increasingly popular, and will contribute a lot to brands in the coming future.
• 
  
• What are some of the key marketing initiatives that you are most excited about?
• 
  
• We are working on several initiatives to make the process of discovery easier for the customer, and to help them find products best suited for them. We are working on numerous personalisation tools that will help customers discover products which are in sync with their taste and life-stage.
• 
  
• The mobile app has become an integral part of our marketing strategy as well, since a lot of customers use the app to shop and discover new products. We are working to create engaging content on the app that ensures stickiness, and return-users on the app.
• 
  
• What are the major areas of investment for the company in the near future?Are there any expansion plans in terms of both reach and services?
• 
  
• We strongly believe that in the long-term, innovative technology will play a key role in solving complex e-commerce problems, such as touch and feel gap, etc. We are working towards solutions in augmented reality and product visualization to help customers make easier purchase decisions. We have launched two apps – Living Spaces & Urban Storage, specifically to help customers, who are buying sofas and wardrobes from us. Urban Ladder will also focus on building the company’s brand.
• 
  
• Our focus will be on three core areas:

• Innovation in design
• Building India’s most loved consumer brand
• Innovation in technology to make home shopping extremely easy

• Mobile phones are fast becoming the dominant medium for online marketplaces in India, which can present an unprecedented opportunity for companies inclined towards the mobile-first approach, feels Sumit Bedi, Vice President - Marketing at Indiamart Intermesh Ltd.
•  
• India Digital Review’s Romit Bhattacharyya caught up with Bedi for a candid chat on digital marketing, the importance of social media in this space, IndiaMART’s game plan to consolidate its mobile traction, among a host of other things.
• 
  
• 
  
•  
• Edited excerpts:
•  
• Q. You recently said IndiaMART clocked a whopping 60% business from mobile. What will you attribute this traction to?
•  
• The growth in mobile devices, driven by the launch of low-cost smartphones coupled with the drop in cost of data plans has fundamentally changed the way consumers interact with platforms like us. Now, with 200 million mobile internet users and with 150 million of them on their smartphones for over 2 hours every day, Indian market presents an unprecedented opportunity. In Urban India, Mobile Internet user base has grown at a rate of 65% over last year resulting in mobile becoming the dominant platform for all the online marketplaces. 
•  
• Q. In light of this development, how do you plan to take forward your mobile-first strategy?
•  
• Our approach is 'consumer-first' and that will never change. When mobile was just taking off in 2012-13, we launched our HTML site and started working on the Android app. Today, our mobile site is one of the fastest and our app is among the top business apps present across all the platforms - Android, iOS, Windows, Blackberry - nearing 3 million downloads.
•  
• Going forward, there will be an increased focus on personalization, which has become the most important pillar of mobile user experience. Mobile technology has brought personalization to the fore and brands need to give consumers content tailored to their interests, needs, and location to make the most of this technology. We are now investing heavily on offering personalized content and recommendations, along with location-based personalization for our buyers. We have just launched our latest version for Android with new UI, and the initial response is very encouraging.
•  
• For suppliers, the mobile platform will act as a combination of CRM & CMS tool, helping them manage their business with complete ease. 
•  
• Q. How fruitful do you think is digital marketing in a country like India?   
•  
• The already-online audience is the low hanging fruit for us. That is where digital marketing really helps. IndiaMART's markeplace offers 3 crore products across 50-plus industries. So, we want to be the first brand in front of anyone who is looking for these products online. Apart from that, it helps us in building our brand among specific segments. Digital offers unparalleled targeting options for marketers whichever TG they are looking for. Example – Small business owners have higher affinity for news portals (especially vernacular ones), financial information sites, while gaming sites/apps have mostly users in the 15-24 age bracket.
•  
• Q. What are the main challenges you face in reaching out and engaging with the digital audience?
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• The ad inventory needs to be less intrusive for the user, especially on the small screens. With interstitials, forced slide-shows, page takeover ads and auto-start videos, advertisers are offered many options. But for the user, it can create an awkward experience and might eventually become a blind spot. 
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• Digital, without doubt, remains the most measurable form of mass media and with the right metrics, it can provide marketers with much more insights than any other media. But due to excess ad inventory, wrong tactics by publishers and marketers to force feed ads down users’ throats, digital still has a long way to go.
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• Q. What is your total budget for marketing and promotions? How much of it is for digital?
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• This year, it will be around 35-40 crore, out of which 50% is on digital.
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• Q. How do you maximise the ROI on your marketing spends?
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• First step is to understand the media habits of our TG through online surveys and in-depth interviews. Second step is to look at the right metric(s) for each medium where we invest. For example, on the digital platform, it's always an ongoing exercise to bring down the cost of acquisition/conversion, whether it is search engine marketing, driving app downloads, email marketing or display campaigns. Similarly, for social media, we look at cost per engagement as a key metric, apart from reach in the right audience set.
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• For all the offline campaigns, we measure ROI through jump in direct traffic, lift in the organic search traffic coming through brand keywords, and the brand health score post the campaign. We optimize our spends across media, so we pull the plug when any platform doesn’t meet our ROI expectations.
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• Q. How do you integrate your online and offline marketing efforts?
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• Here again we stick to our 'çonsumer-first' approach. In today's world, no man is an island and neither should be a marketing campaign. It will make no sense if people visit you on Facebook or Twitter and everything about the brand is unrecognizable, from the ad they saw on TV or the spot they heard on the radio. This disconnect could turn people off, or even cause you to miss out on chances to engage with potential customers who encountered you on another channel.
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• All our offline bursts are planned in tandem with the digital platform, wherein we use our social media channels to build the buzz before our mass launch. This ensures that our message is consistent in front of our TG and even complementary wherever required or possible. The customer’s mind should perceive one seamless and coherent brand story. For example, we launched our campaign with Irrfan (Khan) first on YouTube, a week before going live on television. This not only helped build up buzz among the audience, but also gave us early feedback for the campaign. 
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• Q. How much importance do you give to social media platform when it comes to marketing?
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• I believe brands who engage on social media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their customers and also the employees. It can surely help marketers build a brand and boost its credibility. But, one needs to be extremely cautious about the content strategy on social media channels and invest in building engaging content.
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• We use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram primarily for storytelling, whether it's about our customer success stories, our ground events or even organisation culture. I think it really helps us 'humanise' our brand. We celebrated the milestone of reaching 1 lac premium customers (suppliers) with a social media campaign this quarter (#IBelieveinIM), and this will be now followed up with 10 stories next month, featuring real customers sharing their reasons to believe in IndiaMART.
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• Q. What kind of analytics or social media tools do you use?
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• We use hootsuite for social media management and social searcher/keyhole to keep an eye on the mentions we are getting across channels. Besides, Facebook insights is getting better every year, and helps us understand what our users like or dislike. 
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• Q. What are some of the key marketing initiatives that you are most excited about?
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• IndiaMART is on an exciting growth path and we have to ensure that the brand story is in line with that. Though we had an early mover advantage, our salience was limited to a small base. Therefore, we started with awareness-driven mass campaigns last year. We will now take the conversation forward and highlight the impact our brand creates for the consumers. Our communication will focus on the emotional benefits rather than the functional ones, because brands that have a superior emotional benefit build a stronger relationship with consumers to a point where those brands have a higher market share, higher growth, more success and in the long-term, more profitability.

 

• Mobile advertising has been one of the fastest growing among new industries since its inception, and India, though at a nascent stage, is not far behind. According to a FICCI-KPMG 2015 report, growth in digital ad spends in 2014 was 45%, touching Rs 43.5 billion as against Rs 30.1 billion in 2013. Out of this, the share of mobile advertising grew from 10% in 2013 to 14% in 2014, notching up Rs 5.2 billion.
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• As Indian smartphone users grow in number, companies switch to the mobile-first approach, and an estimated $100-billion global mobile advertising industry beckons, sky is the limit for opportunities in this space.
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• In an exclusive interview with India Digital Review's Romit Bhattacharyya, Rohan Patil, Managing Director of AppLift India, discussed at length about the state of the mobile advertising market, some of the challenges the industry is faced with, the company's India business and future plans, and more.
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• Edited excerpts:
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• Q. How do you view the mobile advertising industry worldwide? How important is the Indian market in this perspective?
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• The most mature (and saturated) app economies in the world are Western Europe, North America, as well as Japan and South Korea. However this is in terms of smartphone penetration and monetization (monetization rate, ARPU, ARPPU).
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• Indian market is very important for us. With the boom in smartphone usage in India, the in-app advertising market is flourishing, vibrant, competitive.
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• In terms of verticals and goods, the Indian market is much more focused on e-/m-commerce than digital goods. In Western and “developed” markets, developers making the most money are mobile game developers offering digital goods (in-app purchases), which cost nothing to produce. In India, the situation is opposite: no one buys digital goods as they are too expensive (and useless), but as most people access the Internet solely through a mobile, the first revenue driver for the mobile economy is m-commerce.
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• Q. How has been your India business so far? How much does the country contribute to your overall revenue?
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• We are not really new to India, we have been doing business in India for the last 2 years. The Indian business has grown substantially in the past and it continues to do so till date. This was one of the main reasons why we decided to set up an office locally, so we could be closer to our partners and offer them the best in class services in mobile ad tech industry. Having said that, there have been of course several challenges and setbacks on the way, but we have quickly learnt our lessons and bounced back.
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• We won't be able to share the numbers, but our Indian business is amongst the top 3 contributors to our global revenue from non-gaming verticals.
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• Q. Who are your top clients in India and abroad? What is their average mobile advertising spend?
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• Globally we work with partners like Olx, King, Wooga and many others. In India, we work with almost all the major mobile app companies - Flipkart, Quikr and Practo being few amongst them. Unfortunately, we won't be able to reveal any numbers here but as mentioned earlier, our Indian partners are amongst the top 3 contributors to non-gaming vertical revenues globally.
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• Q. What are the main challenges one faces in reaching out and engaging with the digital audience, especially mobile advertising?
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• One of the main challenges in reaching and engaging with the digital audience on mobile is that of viewability and ensuring that ads are catered to the right audience through improved targeting and re-targeting capabilities. The quality of the app is also another challenge - advertisers can ensure higher engagement levels through improved navigation and ensuring that the app is well structured and built as a quality tech product.
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• Q. Who do you see as your direct rivals in India and globally? What is your strategy to stay ahead of their curve?
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• InMobi, Komli Media & Pubmatic in India and Glispa globally.
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• Mobile media buying (advertising) is either inefficient, not very transparent, or both. AppLift is a comprehensive mobile app marketing platform that empowers mobile app advertisers to acquire and re-engage quality users at scale. We offer transparency and efficiency at the same time, and our core focus on data, technology and services helps us to stay ahead of the curve and provide superior solutions to app advertisers.
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• Q. What are some of your key marketing initiatives in India?
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• Our key marketing initiatives in India are centered around creating brand awareness for the business as well as employer branding for hiring the best tech talent from top universities in India (such as IITs, IIITs and NITs). We have already hosted a tech meetup as well as a hackathon within a couple of weeks of opening our brand new office in Bangalore, and both events were a huge success. Based on the positive reception, we're looking to have more such events in the future. Our aim is to make our state-of-the-art office in the heart of India's Silicon Valley in Bangalore a hub for tech events and R&D in the city. Additionally, we look forward to attending all major tech events taking place in India.
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• Q. How much importance do you give to the social media platform when it comes to marketing?
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• Social media plays an important part in our marketing efforts. We use it to regularly communicate with our followers on the latest company updates, the events that we're attending, the latest news in mobile ad tech, sharing of images from initiatives being conducted within the company (e.g. for ‘Movember’, we featured some of our employees growing beards in order to encourage donations to the Movember Foundation). We also use social media as an avenue to communicate to audiences on the latest research and report releases of AppLift. Most recently, we released a paper on fraud afflicting mobile programmatic traffic. Social media helps us reach and connect with a wide array of audiences in every initiative that we undertake.
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• Q. Could you please list some of the key areas where you will invest in the immediate future? What is that investment amount?  
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• We are planning to invest in hiring talent. AppLift is rapidly expanding in India and has doubled its headcount since June this year. We will continue to increase by another 70-80%, approximately taking us around 90+ employees by May 2016 and 65% of this growth would be in the area of technology hiring.      
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