New Delhi: With video advertising having caught the imagination of net users, the online ad market in India seems to have come of age quite quickly in India.
While the current size of the market is only Rs450-500 crore, some reports estimate that it is growing at a CAGR of more than 100% and is likely to become a Rs2,250-crore industry by 2009. Ad networks such as Ozone Media Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Komli and Tyroo are nextgen online ad agencies that are capitalizing on this boom by serving as intermediaries between advertisers and publishers.
Kiran Gopinath, Founder and CEO, Ozone Media Solutions
Kiran Gopinath,
founder and CEO, Ozone Media Solutions, which has partnered with 190 websites and services HSBC, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, among other advertizers, talks to Madhusmita Priyadarshini about the medium, the market and the opportunities his company offers to advertisers and publishers. Edited excerpts: According to an estimate, 30-40% of online ad happens through direct deals between the publishers and advertisers. Where do you fit in?
An ad network is basically an infomediary that does the work of digging up unsold inventory on websites and selling it to advertisers. This is what it is by definition.
The 30-40% you are talking about refers to the top four or five portals only who can afford to do business directly. There is a long trail of publishers who do not have the wherewithal to hire a sales guy and approach the advertiser.
Even for the advertiser it is a nightmare to deal with 200-300 odd websites for campaigns run on large scale. That is where they approach us. We serve as a single-window stop, managing such large campaigns for them and adding value to advertisements all the same.
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(In conversation with Kiran Gopinath)
How exactly do you add value to campaigns?
Apart from managing and optimizing huge campaigns for advertisers (according to their individual requirement), which would otherwise be a burden on their resources and time, we do extensive ad survey through which we target ads on websites or categories of websites based on countries and segment of visitors, among other parameters, making the ads more directed and effective.
What kind of revenue sharing model do you have?
We charge advertisers on cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand basis, depending on the advertising model laid down in the contract and share the revenue with the publishers on a 60:40 ratio. Sixty per cent goes to the publishers.
How has the online advertising evolved in the last five years in India and how do you foresee it as growing 10 years down the line?
It is still miniscule in India. This year, overall online ad revenue stood at only Rs450 crore as compared to total ad revenue of Rs60,000 crore. In the US, the online ad market alone is worth $22 billion (Rs87,000 crore).