Q. Can you explain how publishers and app developers benefit from mobile ad networks?
There are a lot of mobile-first publishers who have been very active. Within them, there are many application developers. There are independent application developers too. Some develop apps on Bollywood, cricket, football or astrology. These companies could be a large software firm or a SME. Some of these companies were web development companies and now they are also developing apps. There are also many independent developers, programmers and college students who are good engineers and understand particular OS (Operating System). It could deliver them 100-200 dollars every day, which is an attractive sum. Transactions happen on a click. Advertisers pay for a click and whichever publisher generated the click gets a share.

Q. What kind of advertisers do you regularly work with? What types of mobile advertising are they focused at?
There are many advertisers who want to reach out to mobile internet users. We have worked with over 150 advertisers in India so far. This includes sectors such as FMCG, automobile, telecom and financial services. We have worked with advertisers in almost all segments. In the online-first category, we have worked with Yahoo!, Snapdeal, eBay, etc. There are many companies that want to sell mobile content to mobile internet users. Most of them want to sell games, video services and SMS subscriptions. In short, there are many mobile services players in the market who want to sell mobile content.

Q. Which among the offline, online and mobile-first spaces is the most important for Vserv.mobi from a revenue perspective?
Our revenues are distributed across all three categories.

Q. Can you name a few prominent advertisers who regularly advertise on mobile platforms and are associated with Vserv.mobi?
Samsung, Vodafone, PepsiCo are some of the advertisers we regularly work with. In the FMCG category, brands advertise on a seasonal basis. For instance, Pepsi is a brand that does seasonal advertising from February to May every year. Educational institutes advertise from February to June. A lot of advertisers advertise depending on the seasonality of the business. Device companies advertise throughout the year.

Q. Apart from India, which are the key markets for Vserv.mobi?
South East Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America are other crucial markets for us. 90 per cent of our revenues come from these four markets. These are emerging markets and a large number of users are using mobile devices to access internet in these markets. Apart from that, mobile internet penetration is going to be deeper in these markets than PC internet. PC internet penetration in these markets is limited. Over 50 per cent users are accessing internet through mobile in emerging markets. Therefore, opportunities in the mobile advertising space are aligned with these markets.

Q. We have seen many ad networks, technology platforms and e-commerce players raising funds through venture capitalists in the recent past. Do you also have a similar plan?
We had raised our first round of money about a year ago. The company has grown very quickly since then. However, what is important is that whatever money we have raised, we have grown without burning a single penny. As a company, we have utilised our resources effectively. We would be looking at raising the second round of funds in about six months from now. At this point, we have adequate capital to meet our business goals for the next 18 months and having said that, we would still be looking at raising money in six months, perhaps at the end of this financial year.

Q. What are some of the challenges that you have been facing in terms of competition and convincing advertisers?
Mobile is a new medium for advertisers; therefore it is challenging to convince them. However, because the number of users is growing significantly, advertisers are interested in the medium. There is a lot of content on web and mobile which is being consumed by over 100 million users. Usage is also growing significantly.