Mobile analytics startup puts Southeast Asian telcos to work collecting data
Dippak Khurana and his mobile analytic startup Vserv are letting large telecommunication firms in South East Asia do the heavy lifting for them.Khurana’s info derives from a proprietary algorithm that enables Vserv to collect data from carriers while simultaneously connecting clients to information on users from apps, telecos, offline data partners, for example.
Vserv is doing so to take advantage of the enormous growth in its home turf in India, where the number of mobile phone users has rocketed from 35 million in 2010 to 200 million today. (However, only about 80 million are using smartphones.)
Khurana’s approach to mobile data, albeit one based — for now — in emerging markets, bears watching. Most mobile-analytic companies in the U.S. don’t rely on telecoms for data. By working with Vodaphone, Airtel, and Mobifone, all with massive presences in the booming South Asian markets, Khurana argues that he is able to collect more and better information on mobile users.
The data he accrues contains more data points than other analytic plays because these telcos have vast troves of data. And that data is gold to marketers. “We looked at this problem in emerging markets and saw that mobile ad campaigns we were serving were irrelevant. The question became ‘How do we make this data smart?’ And we did this by partnering with Indian carriers who are helping us integrate the data,” for our customers, the ambitious Khurana said.
Khurana employs a small army of engineers in India and China. Vserv has previously raised $7 million in venture funding.The ambitious Khurana said his software is leading the way in Southeast Asia to monetize mobile ad campaigns for advertisers just starting to get comfortable in serving ads on smartphones and tablets.
Source: venturebeat.com

