InMobi enters into app monetisation partnership with Chinese gaming company CocoaChina

Bangalore and San Francisco-based mobile ad network InMobi has entered into a strategic partnership with Chinese gaming company CocoaChina (owner of the Fishing Joy app franchise), to enable app monetisation and revenue maximisation across its entire user base. The partnership also extends to CocoaChina's parent brand, Chukong Technologies, a leading Chinese mobile gaming publisher.

"This partnership will help us to better monetise our user base of over 100 million game consumers through features such as a library of ad formats, analytics, and access to advertisers worldwide. We also aim to attract more developers to our platform as a result of this partnership," said Li Jian, director of inventory, CocoaChina.

InMobi in China

According to the company, China has around 415 million smartphone users and the mobile ad market in the country is growing at 150 per cent year-on-year. Similarly, the InMobi network in the country has witnessed an 84 per cent increase in the number of ad impressions across mobile devices and tablets from September 2012 to September 2013. During the same period, in-app advertising also grew by 86 per cent.

As of now, InMobi claims to be delivering 350 million peak impressions and 1.5 million clicks on a daily basis in the country. The new partnership brings China's leading game franchise, Fishing Joy, into InMobi's ad network, and will grow its network by 25 per cent- by leveraging CocoaChina's user base and the extended developer community working on its Cocos2D platform.

"The partnership will enable CocoaChina and its developers to benefit from InMobi's market access, technology and monetisation capabilities. The partnership will also aid developers as they approach the Chinese market, while aiding CocoaChina to increase its global footprint in the West," said Jayesh Easwaramony, VP, business development, JAPAC, InMobi.

Recently, the company had also partnered with Japanese instant messaging app LINE, as well as Korea's Kakao Games. The company also launched InMobi SmartAds, a new ad format that will include live feeds into the rich media ads.

Set up in 2007, InMobi's platform enables brands, publishers and developers to engage with global consumers through mobile advertising. The company is backed by investors such as SoftBank Corp, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures. In 2011, it had struck the largest deal in the mobile internet space in India with $200 million commitment from Japan's SoftBank. InMobi has raised around $215.5 million till date and has offices in India, the UK and the US (as well as in other global locations). The company currently employs 800 people and has customers in 165 countries. It has recently expanded its footprint into the rest of Asia, Europe and Australia.

As of May 2013, the company's mobile ad network was reaching 691 million unique users per month across 165 countries via mobile devices (covering more than 40 per cent of smartphone users globally), over 16 per cent rise in the number of consumers from 578 million in January this year. Interestingly, India came third (with 49 million users) among the countries that have the largest number of monthly unique users for InMobi – after the US with 156 million (which is the clear leader) and China with 63 million users.