Web and mobile apps are used extensively. There are companies like Instagram, Mxit, 2go, Twitter and the like that have lots of users who access their services on their mobile devices. Mobile application development has therefore been seen as a gold mine.
Not all applications are created equal. There are apps that are fighting to be seen and used, and there are those that are looking for ways to monetise their services. Vserv is a global ad network that plays a pivotal role in increasing the relevance and utility of mobile media for consumers, marketers, content creators and developers.
In emerging markets, Vserv believes that monetising apps via ads is the most viable option for developers to make money from apps as means of buying or paying for apps is not readily available. Do you agree?
During this year’s Mobile Web West Africa conference in Lagos, Nigeria, I met up with Binay Tiwari of Vserv. He shared with me what they do and how they are helping developers get ahead with their offerings.
Tell me about VServ
Vserv as a company works with developers in a very unique way using a product called App Wrapper. The App Wrappers is a very simple method for developers to enable ad of their free games and applications in one click without any coding or SDK.
Just take your our application file, run the App Wrapper tool on it. App Wrapper enables your application and connects in to our advertising network. When consumers download the app and start using it they can see ads presented to them. We use the launch and exit format of advertising. It is premium placement, advertisers love it and pay more for it and developers make much more money.
How long have you been in the business?
Vserv as a company has been around for about two and half years. We started in January 2010 officially. We have since then been working with developers and advertisers.
What makes you different from the other premium ad networks?
Most of them are focus on smartphones and the developed markets. Focusing on devices like the Androids and the iOS. We are from India, an emerging market. We know this markets and we are also aware of their needs. So, the products that we built are tailored to help developers in these markets to monetise easily. We support monetisation of feature phone apps in a simple way.
We have SDK too, but the App Wrapper makes it easier for developers. For advertisers we are offering them reach across, not just smartphones, but the many feature phones that are being used in emerging markets.
What has been some of your results?
We are doing 15 billion ad impressions per month globally. We have over 10,000 apps on our networks right now that are using our service to monetise their apps. Africa is about 16% of our inventory globally. Nigeria is the number one in Africa. For apps that monetise with us, they have a fill rate of over 90%.
What plans do you have for Nigeria?
Given that it is an online business, we have been able to connect with some developers. They reach out to us. We are looking for opportunity to do more business here and host events that will show developers of features how to leverage on our offerings.
Who are you looking to working with in Nigeria?
We are looking at working primarily with developers in Nigeria. To help them monetise their apps and also to help the visibility of their apps to more than 200 countries of the world. This will help them to monetising globally.
We have lots of advertisers globally, now we are focusing on developers. We are looking to make locally relevant contents get exposure too.
We have partnered with publishers and app stores that ensure that the apps of our developers are features and get downloaded. We keep working of finding and networking with more app stores to boost the distribution points of apps developed by our developers. This is one of our core strategies.
We have a solution called the App Channel and Mobile Sites where we include links for free apps to be downloaded. A publisher includes a link stating that a free app can be downloaded. When the link is clicked, it takes the user to our App Channel. The apps that are shown on partners that showcase link to our app channel are related to the contents that are published on the blog. Example, if it’s a finance blog that ads a link to download one of the apps by our developers. As soon as the app is downloaded, the user is shown and during launch and exit of the app. Each time the user is shown an app, we share the revenue with the publisher that made it possible for the app to be downloaded. So, the owner of the app earns, the publisher who helped in making the app visible also earns.
Have you done this for any publisher already or is it something you just have on paper?
[He laughs] We have and they are extremely happy. There are even publishers who believes that the link to the free apps is giving relevant content to their visitors.
One company that is profiting from using Vserve is Twist Mobile. Mr.Virat Khutal – CEO Twist Mobile, mentioned that when they first went to those ad networks that would help them monetise the app, they were told they need to make certain changes to the codes in their app. They did not find that appealing. So, they came to us. We gave them a unique way of using a single click via App Wrapper have since then been very happy.
They have a slide here that can give you a deeper insight into the unique proposition they have.
If you have issue giving visibility to your apps, especially those built for feature phones and you want to make some cash through placing ad withing your apps, you can get in touch with them here.
image credits: flickr
