INDIA IS NOW TAKING PROGRAMMATIC BUYING SERIOUSLY: NITIN GUPTA
With more than 60% of its revenues generated from the European & US markets, it was only a matter of time before Nitin Gupta, CEO & Founder, Xapads Media, a digital advertising network, set up shop in New York’s iconic Times Square, with a staggering target of clocking $5 million in the first quarter of the next fiscal BY ALLAN DSOUZA For a digital ad network that started out modestly with providing display and performance ad solutions to its partners, Xapads Media has come a long way over the last 12 years to establish itself as a front-runner in the programmatic ad solutions business. With its large network of over 100 Demand- Side Platform (DSP) and Supply -Side Platform (SSP) partners, Nitin Gupta, CEO & Founder, Xapads Media shares his vision of expanding the independent programmatic ad-exchange company in the coming years. NEW YORK IS ONLY THE BEGINNING Xapads has been providing its partners with digital ad solutions and with most of its operations happening overseas, clocking a target of $5 million in the first quarter of the next fiscal is a target for Gupta. “Over 60% of our total revenues come from our operations in the US and Europe. It was only the physical presence that was required. With our Times Square office and its robust sales team, we should be able to meet our targets. Besides, New York is just the beginning, since we are also planning to open offices in several European & South Asian markets that make up a big chunk of our businesses,” says an excited and confident Gupta. WE ALL GROW TOGETHER Gupta pegs Xapads’ annual growth at over 90% and the reason for such phenomenal growth he says is the company’s pursuit in developing the business rather than focusing only on financials. InMobi, Pokkt, Fork Media and Affle are some of Xapads’ contemporaries in the programmatic ad exchange space, but Gupta sees them as partners too rather than competitors. “The West is marching ahead in its adoption of latest advertising technologies and India will only catchup when all of us come together and educate advertisers about this targeted and transparent technology that will significantly optimise every advertising rupee invested,” says Gupta. Talking about the eagerness shown by Indian advertisers, Gupta adds, “Advertising is a growing business in India and the growth of programmatic is only bigger. While overall ad growth is oddly around 10%, the programmatic ad trade is growing anywhere between 20%-25%.” FOCUS ON AI & MACHINE LEARNING In Gupta’s opinion, Real-Time Biddings (RTBs) have democratized the way media planning is done and with the advertiser showing interest, it is now the platform’s job to build on that confidence. Xapads and its tech partners that include MediaMath, Smaato, Gamoshi and Axonix among other international names, have an aligned vision of steering growth through technology breakthroughs. “RTBs are executed in under 50 milliseconds and to perfect that process, there is a gamut of research and development that will be required. Our focus now is to work with our partners to develop AI technologies and infuse machine-learning to further automate the exchange process, making it faster, seamless and more productive for every stakeholder,” states Gupta. ATTRIBUTION IS ‘THE PROBLEM & THE SOLUTION’ One of the biggest roadblocks in mapping ROI through programmatic has been that of attribution and for Gupta the challenge is no different. “A lot of our technology’s effectiveness is only attributed to the last stage action of the user. For example, you see an ad online that is relevant to your need and you click on it, it is not just that click that should get attributed to our partners, but the entire process of how the right ad landed on the right screen at the right time is what has to be measured. Right now our efforts are dedicated towards getting the right attribution evenly distributed amongst all our partners,” concludes Gupta. @ FEEDBACK
allan.dsouza@exchange4media.com
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