{"id":4428,"date":"2015-12-09T01:11:04","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T06:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/inmobi-an-indian-startup-with-a-global-ambition\/"},"modified":"2015-12-09T15:18:31","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T20:18:31","slug":"inmobi-an-indian-startup-with-a-global-ambition","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/inmobi-an-indian-startup-with-a-global-ambition\/","title":{"rendered":"InMobi: An Indian Startup with a global ambition"},"content":{"rendered":"

InMobi – an introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n

InMobi<\/a> is one of the world\u2019s largest player in mobile advertising – an industry in which it competes with the likes of Facebook and Google. Although the startup is headquartered in India, almost all its revenues come from outside India. InMobi has been successful not just because of its excellent technology and products but also due to its focus on operations<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Mobile<\/a>\"Mobile<\/a><\/p>\n

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Exhibit 1: Examples of mobile ads. The first screenshot shows an “app install ad<\/a>” for Open Table. The second screenshot shows a “native interstitial” ad. Both the ads blends in with the content of the app – a format called native ads<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Business Model of InMobi – a primer on Mobile advertising industry:<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Mobile<\/a>Mobile ad networks are marketplaces that connects publishers (mobile apps, websites where ads are displayed) with advertisers. They provide scale to both publishers and advertisers (for e.g. an advertiser can reach\u00a0thousands of publishers through\u00a0InMobi). More importantly, through their technology matching algorithm they ensure that only relevant ads are shown for different publishers (for e.g. a Nike male shoe ad should be shown to only male sports enthusiasts). Through this they ensure that the return on investment for the advertiser is the highest while also maintaining the user experience.<\/p>\n

Exhibit 2: Structure of the Mobile Ad Ecosystem. InMobi operates both as an ad network and ad exchange in the schematic<\/em><\/p>\n

Alignment between Operating and Business model:<\/b><\/p>\n

Some of InMobi\u2019s key operating decisions demonstrate the value that it has created and that it has managed to capture. Some of these are given below:<\/p>\n

1) Established data centers across the world and outsourced their management to 3rd party service providers:<\/strong><\/p>\n

InMobi had the choice between having a single data center based in India and having multiple data centers spread all over the world. It decided to go with the latter model for the following:<\/p>\n