Microsoft launches digital ad platform in India
Microsoft has launched a digital advertising platform in partnership with four leading portals to simplify digital advertising by bringing the advertisers and portals on the same platform. Microsoft’’s digital advertising platform will provide display, contextual and video advertising solutions for its partners. NDTV Media, the sales partner for the Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, will bring advertisers to the platform.
The software giant will offer advertising solutions with portal partners at rates cheaper than newspaper ad tariffs. There are only 400 online advertisers in India as against 9,000 in television and over 2 lakh print advertisers. However, with the growing internet base of 40 million users, experts say online advertising could turn out to be the medium of future.
The online advertising industry is valued at Rs 500 crore and is growing at 55-60 per cent. Starting with four publisher portals, the company aims to take the number of partners to 1,000 over the next three years. The online advertising industry currently constitutes merely 1 per cent of the total advertising space and Microsoft’’s new platform aims to revolutionise the way online industry is viewed. The aim is to build bridge between the advertisers and publishers through this new solution, however, the challenge of perception and basic infrastructure remains how well they would be able to face it only time will tell.