Seventynine.mobi to increase focus on technology led product innovations

New Delhi : Seventynine, a subsidiary of Gruner+Jahr India and a mobile ad network with immense focus on technology led product innovations, today appointed Siddharth Kelkar as the new Lead for the Business. Kelkar was heading the company’s ad sales business and is taking over from co-founders Chirag Shah and Deven Dharamdasani.

​​Commenting on his new role, Kelkar says, “Powered by a robust product and the right team, Seventynine.mobi has successfully created a unique space for itself in the mobile app business. I am delighted to have this opportunity to drive the business further. Our objective for the next couple of years is to focus on the App jacket and app installs business in the country and create a global footprint.” App Jacket is the company’s patent-pending automated ad-integration technology that maximizes monetization opportunities for App Developers with premium Ad offerings.

Seventynine.mobi is a business unit of Networkplay Media and Kelkar will work together with the Management Team comprising of Viren Anand and Hitesh Trehan. “Siddharth’s unique skill set has been honed through years of relevant experience. We are confident of his capabilities and this appointment compliments the company’s accelerating footprint in the mobile advertising space. We give Chirag and Deven all credits for Seventynine’s success so far and wish them good luck for future endeavors” said the Management Team at Networkplay.

Speaking on the group’s commitment, Oliver Radtke, Chief Operating Officer, Gruner + Jahr, said “We are building a stronger mobile presence in the APAC region and India provides enormous opportunity. The acquisition of seventynine has been strategically important and is showing attractive growth and profits.”

Commenting on the association, Chirag Shah said, “Two years ago, Seventynine.mobi was just a start-up with a talented team and today it is a part of an International media group. Working with G+J has been great and now after a fruitful journey together it is time to move on.”

Deven Dharamdasani added, “App Jacket is the key to the success of Seventynine.mobi today. Post the acquisition by G+J India we focused our energies on delivering seamless quality videos along with scaling up our app install business and we have truly seen a tremendous growth in this in the past two years. We are proud of the success that seventynine.mobi has seen today with the constant support provided by G+J.”


About Siddharth Kelkar:
Has more than 13 years of relevant experience in media ad sales. Kelkar started his career with Bennett, Coleman & Co and has worked with Hindustan Times, Network18 Group, Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd and Ozone Media. He has been responsible for Online & MobileAd network sales across various verticals. Since late 2012, Kelkar has been heading National Sales at Networkplay Media and has been responsible for sales and revenue generation in this role.

About Seventynine:
Seventynine is a business unit of Networkplay Media Pvt Ltd. and a subsidiary of Gruner+Jahr India in the mobile space. It comprises of four divisions viz., Distribution Platform (ad network), Analytics and Metrics for Mobile partners, Rich Media and Video (via app jacket) and M-Establishment (Studio) for App and WAP development for brands. Seventynine is serving video advertisements on 350+ Android applications and has worked with more than 150 brand across categories. Seventynine.mobi is also the leading player in the Android app install business in the country.

About Networkplay:
Acquired in March 2012, by Gruner + Jahr (G+J), a division of Bertelsmann, Networkplay Media Pvt. Ltd. is India’s fastest growing digital agency incubated in 2008 by Webchutney and funded by Capital18. With assets through alliances across various touch points, Networkplay today handles over 500 campaigns in a quarter and over 6 billion impressions per month across Web, DTH and Mobile platforms. It has also successfully run properties of global repute in the areas of events (ad:tech and iMedia Summit) and publishing (iMedia Connection) partnering with DMG events.


With association to over 1000 publishers and 450 advertisers, Networkplay today rightfully enjoys the position of a pioneer that turned around the business dynamics in the market since its inception in 2008.

The expansion of Networkplay through the acquisition of Seventynine in the mobile space in November 2012 and Yocaptcha! in 2013 clearly follows its German stakeholder, G+J’s strategic commitment to grow its digital business in the Indian market

About Gruner + Jahr:
Gruner + Jahr is the publishing division of European media conglomerate Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA. With over 500 media activities, magazines and digital offers in more than 30 countries, Gruner + Jahr is a market leader in many segments and is not only Europe’s biggest magazine publisher but one of the biggest publishers in the world. In fiscal year 2013, Gruner + Jahr generated revenues of Euro 2.1 billion. 74.9 percent of Gruner + Jahr is owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, 25.1 percent by the Hamburg publishing family Jahr.

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Networkplay to increase focus on mobile & online video advertising under new management

New Delhi: Networkplay, Indian subsidiary of Gruner + Jahr, today announced an enhanced focus on online and mobile video advertising to provide data-driven value creation for the growing Indian publisher industry. Advertisers are searching for new opportunities and video-driven publisher ecosystems are providing a critical advantage.

This announcement is a part of the ongoing process for enhancing the future strategic focus, wherein Ampreet Singh exited from the company in mid-June and a new management team, comprising of Viren Anand and Hitesh Trehan has been appointed to take over the responsibility. Oliver Radtke, Chief Operating Officer and member of the Executive Board, Gruner + Jahr commented, "The new management team has a portfolio of resilient leadership and skilled competence. They have the full commitment from G+J to continue our focus on growth in India.”

Commenting on the way forward, Viren Anand, Co-Founder, Director Operations & Publisher alliances, Networkplay said “The digital and mobile advertising industry in India is rapidly evolving with the increasing penetration of smartphones and greater acceptance for digital platforms. Networkplay has been monitoring this exciting growth and is transforming into a future ready digital company, building strong technological competence around current expertise.”

A firm focus on the growing digital industry has been the mantra that has guided Networkplay since its inception. Introduction of innovative solutions like Videoplay – the next generation ecosystem for videos and important associations with key partners like Tradedoubler and T3 IGI airport, reflect the company’s constant commitment towards maximizing reach and targetting relevant audiences for publishers and advertisers alike.

“The Future is what excites us the most,” said Hitesh Trehan, Director - Sales & New Initiatives, Networkplay. “The number of lifestyle devices coupled with speedy technology innovation is creating waves across the industry. It’s a very exciting time for all of us and our team is keeping one eye on the present and the other on the future, by constantly developing first of its kind solutions for our clients.”

About Networkplay:
Acquired in March 2012, by Gruner + Jahr (G+J), a division of Bertelsmann, Networkplay Media Pvt. Ltd. is India’s fastest growing digital agency incubated in 2008 by Webchutney and funded by Capital18. With assets through alliances across various touch points, Networkplay today handles over 500 campaigns in a quarter and over 6 billion impressions per month across Web, DTH and Mobile platforms. It has also successfully run properties of global repute in the areas of events (ad:tech and iMedia Summit) and publishing (iMedia Connection) partnering with DMG events.

With association to over 1000 publishers and 450 advertisers, Networkplay today rightfully enjoys the position of a pioneer that turned around the business dynamics in the market since its inception in 2008.

The expansion of Networkplay through the acquisition of Seventynine in the mobile space in November 2012 and Yocaptcha! in 2013 clearly follows its German stakeholder, G+J’s strategic commitment to grow its digital business in the Indian market.

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Networkplay Unveils VideoPlay

Networkplay (networkplay.in) , Indian subsidiary of Gruner+Jahr takes video advertising to a whole new level with the launch of VideoPlay, a revolutionary byproduct of its recent acquisition – Vxchange. Further enhanced with multiple features, added benefits, VideoPlay is a digital video ecosystem that offers an open marketplace platform for video content and ad inventory to content providers, publishers and advertisers.

An easy-to-use marketplace platform, VideoPlay enables trading of video content and advertisements. The platform provides syndication opportunities to content providers while enabling publishers to add value to their existing content by picking videos from the platform and hosting it on their websites. Advertisers will also be able to leverage this scheme by delivering ads on various genres of video content. The platform offers both custom flash-based video players as well as HTML5 compatible video player to deliver video through embed codes, thus ensuring that it supports all devices including mobiles and tablets.

Advertisers will get to choose from ad formats such as pre-roll, post-roll, mid-roll and overlay image ads. Depending on the type of user (content provider, publisher, advertiser) VideoPlay provides customised user interfaces and functionality features.

 
Commenting on this launch, Mr. Kuldip Singh, CEO Gruner + Jahr, India says, “G+J’s strategy for Networkplay focuses on further growth of the existing business and expansion of the product portfolio. With India as Asia’s 3rd largest online video market after China and Japan, and online video consumption has grown to more than 3.7 bn videos as against 1.8 bn in 2011, the market is witnessing shifts in ad budgets inclined heavily towards video advertising. The launch of VideoPlay brings to fore, Networkplay’s focus on building strong technological competence in the video space, thus differentiating itself from other players and helping it pave the way for a long-term position in this segment.”

According to Ampreet Singh, CEO Networkplay, “The company is taking myriad initiatives to establish itself as a large media firm. The core continues to remain digital and due diligence by our team in the market with several content providers, publishers and advertisers, further reinforces our product offering as of immense value to all. Our successful campaigns delivered in a couple of months for clients like Visa, KFC, Mitsubishi Electric & Virgin Atlantic have made us very visible in the market. The performance on these campaigns has been above industry standards and we expect it to be even better in the coming months."

The launch of VideoPlay, marks the beginning of a series of exciting novel schemes. Networkplay has already tied up with various content providers and publishers for this proposal and is expecting more traction in the coming months.

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