Moloco’s machine learning: The new competitive edge for India’s digital ecosystem

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having a moment. As the marketing and advertising industry readily adopts different generative AI tools, it is important to remember that AI takes many forms beyond generative AI, many of which have been in the industry for a while now.

Machine Learning (ML) has been helping advertisers and marketers capitalize on vast amounts of data by providing insights to optimize audience targeting, personalization, media buying, and more. Within advanced ML technology, operational ML, in which Moloco is a leader, has been instrumental in helping organizations use real-time data to self-learn and act autonomously in decision-making. At Moloco, we deliver and enable digital growth and performance for our customers by unlocking the true value of their unique, first-party data.

Moloco’s mission is to empower businesses of all sizes to grow through operational ML. At the onset, we identified a multi-million dollar opportunity to enter the India market. We experienced hyper growth in just six months and served ads to approximately 150 million users in India by bringing the power of ML to performance advertising in India.

We strive to democratize the advertising landscape and envision a world where local businesses can scale globally, achieve profitability and remain independent. There are a plethora of opportunities in India, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to expand our operations here.

India’s strategic importance

India is evolving into a strategic actor in Asia, becoming a leader in technology development. India’s internet economy has grown ten times in the last decade. According to a Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company report, it is on a path to reach a $1T consumer internet economy by 2030. Not to mention, entrepreneurial activity has been booming, with over 100 unicorns and 90,000 startups.

Most experts believe this is just the beginning of India's digital transformation, and the next decade will see phenomenal value being created, given the large population, rising disposable incomes, and digital infrastructure in place.

We see India as an important growth lever. While India’s digital ads market size is still relatively small compared to other large economies, it has been rapidly growing.

Our India journey

Moloco India's journey has been nothing short of exhilarating. All three product lines of Moloco, Demand Side Platform (DSP), Retail Media Platform (RMP) and Advertising-Based Video on Demand (AVOD), are available and well received in India. We work with over 20 of the largest gaming companies in India, who acquire high-value users using Moloco Cloud DSP. We have built out the ad-tech stack of a popular streaming app and an e-commerce platform to help them monetize better.

Not to mention, in just six months, we opened our office in Gurgaon and are now adding another dot on the map in Bangalore. Why Gurgaon and Bangalore? India is a large and diverse country, with different tech, business, and media hubs. We wanted to be close to our customers but also be able to attract the best talent regardless of geography.

Our nimble team (which is growing fast) has diverse backgrounds, including Shobhit Singhal (Director of Product Management, Disney+ Hotstar alumnus), Nikhil Rao (Director of Engineering, ex-Googler of over 10 years), and Apoorv Pandey (Head of DSP Growth, ex-Zomato) to name a few. We have had a lot of fun building the India organization over the last few months and have fostered a fun, high-performing, and inclusive culture.

Empowering customers

Every app wants to acquire high-value users, who are highly engaged and likely to convert. Here’s where Moloco comes in. Our operational ML technology can identify who is a valuable user by training on the first-party data of the app. Then, in a data-secure way, find look-alike users on the open internet, and help acquire them for the app in a cost-efficient manner. We demonstrated the value of putting the power of ML in the hands of Indian customers and quickly onboarded customers, including large gaming apps like Zupee, Gameskraft, Adda52, MPL, Rush by Hike, and Octro.
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Zupee, a rapidly expanding Indian skill based casual gaming company, joined forces with Moloco to enhance user growth and drive profitability. With Moloco Cloud DSP, Zupee significantly boosted its user base and achieved Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) targets, while also optimizing break-even periods to scale further.

"Moloco Cloud DSP stands as a prominent performance platform, earning our trust as a valued partner at Zupee. Moloco’s innovative solutions have been critical in optimising and achieving our marketing endeavors." — Akanksha Dhamija, COO, Growth & Strategy, Zupee

Grow with Moloco India

An equitable and efficient mobile advertising model will be the way forward in the cookieless era. Moloco empowers Indian customers to grow by democratizing the AdTech landscape and innovating advanced operational ML that excels in autonomous decision-making, real-time processing capability, and immense scalability.

We look forward to sustaining this extraordinary growth trajectory of all our product lines into 2024. We are now looking to scale the India business and contribute a healthy share of Moloco's global revenue and clients.

If you are interested in joining the team, please click here to learn more about our openings in India! We look forward to welcoming you to our Moloco family.

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