India leads in Asian mobile ad impressions: InMobi

India market poised for explosive growth given strong consumer acceptance of mobile ads combined with massive reach and scale of ad impressions.

Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi - India, November 22, 2010 - New market research from InMobi, one of the fastest growing global mobile advertising networks, in partnership with comScore, reveals surprisingly high levels of mobile advertising acceptance in India, with over 72% of Indian consumers comfortable with mobile advertising, and over 50% ready to receive personalised advertisements. This finding is likely to surprise advertisers who are being conservative in adopting mobile advertising as part of their strategies to date.  Overall the research results point to the untapped potential of the region driven by consumer adoption. In keeping with Asia trends, Nokia dominates both the OS and manufacturer share in India. Nokia’s OS platforms, including Symbian, have about 65% of the OS share of available ad impressions. With almost 65% of the manufacturer’s share, Nokia leads Samsung who comes in second at 17% share. The Indian consumer has a higher level of comfort with mobile ads (72%) relative to Asia overall at 69%.  In terms of volume of impressions, India also leads the Asia region with over 6 billion impression served followed by Indonesia. The consumer survey, done in partnership with digital marketing intelligence agency, comScore, interviewed 3,500 consumers in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, India, and Australia, and discussed overall comfort with mobile ads, perceived benefits and willingness to have ads.

James Lamberti, VP Global Research & Marketing at InMobi said, “These results present a truly enlightening picture of how mobile advertising is perceived in Asia and India. Consumers are embracing the mobile channel already and, when combined with the upcoming 3G adoption, will make India one of the most explosive mobile advertising markets in the world. “India has a large market that is receptive to mobile ads and prefers personalized ads as shown by this survey. This creates a great opportunity for advertisers to provide relevant ads for a better user experience. Because InMobi has the largest reach among mobile advertising networks in India and the deepest local knowledge and experience in market, it is the perfect platform for advertisers to reach out to mobile consumers in the country,” said Emmanuel Allix, VP & Managing Director, APAC at InMobi. “We’re pleased to partner with InMobi for this survey,” said Joe Nguyen, Vice President, Southeast Asia, at comScore. “It gives advertisers and brands a better understanding of the situation in Asia and India, and hopefully a better position from which to strategise.” Other findings include:

• Overall, 69% of Asians were comfortable with mobile advertising, and 54% were ready for customised/personalised advertising.
• 46% of those surveyed have benefited from being introduced to new product through a mobile advertisement.
• Mobile advertising appealed more to men and the under-25, rather than women or older consumers. Even so, across the board, Asian and Indian acceptance/comfort levels for mobile advertising were substantially higher than in the United States.
• 50% were willing to receive advertising in return for free apps, and 53% in return for a lower phone bill.
• Markets with more advanced phones (like Australia), had more evolved perceived benefits.

InMobi’s also shared other interesting information about mobile advertising in Asia and the rest of the world:

Global

• Nokia as a manufcaturer dominates the global share of impressions, with about 47% of the impressions, with Samsung and Sony Ercisson in second and third place, respectively. The trends in the Asia Pacific region are similar, with Nokia well ahead of competition at 61% of global impressions.  Sony Ericsson is a distant second at 14%.
• Together iPhone iOS and Android OS are showing the strongest growth globally with a joint share of 11%.  This growth is coming mainly at the cost of current leaders Nokia and Symbian, who together have a 48% market share.
• Nokia leads in Asia, with 36% share of the available impressions, with Symbian in second place. The iPhone has a market share of about 2% in the region and went up by 0.6% in the region between June and July 2010.The iPhone is the single largest mobile advertising device in the world, with a 5% share of global ad impressions.  36% of these impressions are outside of the North America region.
• Symbian OS is making the largest impact outside the developed nations with over 84% of impressions from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Asia

• iPhone and Android are barely present in Asia as Nokia dominates these regions. iPhone OS is 11% share in Asia and Android is 2.5%.

• Australia
  • The Nokia OS comes in third in this region, with only a 5% share of ad impressions.  iPhone leads with 35% of the available impressions, with Symbian in second place at 24%.
  • Apple leads in terms of manufacture’s share with 35% and Nokia comes in second with 29%.
• Malaysia
  • Nokia and Symbian OS leads in Malaysia with a 52% market share.
  • Nokia and Sony Ericsson own almost 92% of the market for manufacturers, with iPhone and Samsung sharing the remaining 8%.
• Indonesia
  • Nokia and Symbian are the OS that lead in Indonesia with a share of 61%.
  • Nokia owns the market in Indonesia with about 60% of the manufacturer’s market share. Song Ericcson is at 22%, with other brand sharing the rest of the pie.

About InMobi

InMobi is the world’s largest independent mobile advertising network. InMobi provides advertisers, developers, and publishers with a uniquely global mobile advertising solution. InMobi, which more than doubled its network in the first 6 months of 2010, delivers the unprecedented ability to reach 185 million consumers in over 125 countries through more than 23.9 billion mobile ad impressions monthly. This includes over 12 billion impressions to more than 100 million consumers in the Asia Pacific region making it the largest mobile ad network in Asia.  Recently InMobi was selected to the 2010 AlwaysOn 250 as a company to watch in the global Silicon Valley. InMobi is venture-backed with marquee investors including: Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures. The company has offices in London, San Francisco, Bangalore, Tokyo, Mumbai, Johannesburg and Singapore. To learn more, please visit www.InMobi.com/research , follow us on Twitter @InMobi, or read our blog at www.InMobi.com/blog