Vdopia growing by over 500% year-on-year in revenues: Saurabh Bhatia

by Satrajit Sen

Following the appointment of Debadutta Upadhyaya as vice president of Vdopia in India, AlooTechie spoke with her to know her immediate priorities at the company and also the current state of the online video advertising market in India. Saurabh Bhatia, chief business officer, Vdopia, also joined us and talked about the company’s current growth and future plans.

What was your reason behind leaving Yahoo and joining Vdopia?

Debadutta Upadhyaya: The fact that Vdopia is a completely different company than Yahoo was actually the trigger for me to join this company. I have been pretty impressed by the kind of work Vdopia has been doing. Considering the pace in which technology is growing now, it is very important to have a proprietary technological backup and the ability to execute the technology for growing in the market. Vdopia has an able in-house team which meets the world standards. And finally, you need to know what the company is headed to at least in terms of vision. Considering all these reasons and the difference of what the company brings on to the table, it became easier for me to choose my options.

Now that you have joined Vdopia, what would be your priorities at the company?

Debadutta Upadhyaya: The company’s vision has become my priority now. We have the vision of ending this year as the third largest internet media company in India and we are working strongly towards achieving this goal.

What are the company’s immediate plans? Are you going to launch more technologies for online video advertising or will you be focussing on monetising the already existing ones?

Saurabh Bhatia: There are two aspects to it. We definitely need to scale up the reach of our existing products. We have been a company which has a different approach of launching technologies that are relevant to a particular market. Some of our technologies have been launched first in India and then taken out globally and vice versa. As far as launching new products goes, mobile is a definite area where we are going to focus more. This technology has been super successful in the US and in India we are waiting to see how the 3G environment shows up. The Vlive technology is gaining popularity and we now have global media giants enquiring us about the technology. We also plan to take the technology in mobile. We also plan to launch new technologies in every quarter now onwards.

Any plan of launching your services in new markets?

Saurabh Bhatia: Yes, either by the Q2 or the Q3 this year, we would be expanding our services to Europe and APAC (Asia-Pacific). And for the US we have some expansion plans lined up that may be executed within a few weeks.

What is the size of the online video advertisement market in India and what is Vdopia’s share in that?

Saurabh Bhatia: If we consider the Ernst & Young report, the online video advertisement industry is currently growing at 300 per cent year-on-year. Currently, it is pegged between Rs 60 crore and Rs 70 crore and two years down the line, I feel the number will become Rs 250 crore.

The industry is growing at a rapid pace, and we, as a company, are witnessing over 500 per cent growth year-on-year in revenues. By the end of this year, we see ourselves holding on to at least 60 to 70 per cent of the market share.

What have been the challenges so far in India?

Saurabh Bhatia: When we first started and went to meet even the online media owners, the question they raised was ‘why video advertisements on internet’. Then the question shifted to ‘I can’t do video ads on internet’ and so we provided the technology. Now, the challenge is to find new ways of delivering online video ads for our clients. So, that has been the journey so far but there is still a long way to go before we can have big advertisers embrace this media.

The brand owners need to see online video adverting as not only an internet campaign but as an extension of their TV campaigns. In fact, we have a lot of advertisers embracing the medium first through online advertisements.

Debadutta Upadhyaya: The kind of engagement an online video ad can generate is much more than a banner ad. Advertisers today are not looking at pure play banner advertisements any more. They want ways to integrate their brands in the communication and that is what makes video ads much more interesting. Advertisers are now willing to know more about the medium and that is a good sign for us.