Indonesia Irresistible for Digital Advertising Companies as ad2c Launches Regional Office in Jakarta

Seems like today's a day for incoming mobile ad companies to reveal themselves. India based ad2c announced today that it is setting up a regional office in Indonesia to serve the Southeast Asian market. Partnering with XL Axiata, Dentsu, Yahoo, and XM Gravity, the company sees tremendous opportunity in growing and seizing the Indonesian mobile consumer market.

ad2c is part of the Singapore-based Affle group and is a joint venture with Japan's D2C Inc., which had been in the mobile advertising business since 2000. D2C itself was set up as a joint venture between NTT Docomo, Dentsu, and NTT Advertising.

Affle group founder and chairman Anuj Khanna Sohum, told DailySocial that the company sees Indonesia as a massive potential market thanks to its people's rapid adoption of mobile devices. "We want to be the catalyst in propelling the mobile marketing size in Indonesia to ten times in three years", he said. "Right now the total mobile ad spend by companies in Indonesia is less than 1% of the entire advertising spend. It's going to grow much higher. We are committed to grow the market to be ten times it is today in two to three years".

In a statement to the press Sohum said, "mobile industry will play an important role in the economic and social development of the country as has been witnessed in other developing markets".

Head of Yahoo Indonesia Roy Simangunsong told DailySocial that the reason Yahoo decided to partner with ad2c is that the company provides an extension of what Yahoo does as a media and advertising publisher especially now that Yahoo Indonesia no longer has an internal engineering team. "For Yahoo, when it comes to advertising, the important thing is how to create something that's both engaging and meaningful and we work with ad2c to realize that".

Sohum underlines the importance in having Indonesia as a regional hub for the company. "We have committed over USD 10 million in two years to grow the market meaningfully. Sustainable growth can only happen with local talents so we're going to have at least 50% local talent in Indonesia and we will make it a hub for Southeast Asia."

Harris Thajeb, president director Dentsu group Indonesia believes mobile advertising will play a bigger role in the industry. "TV advertising business grows at 20-30% annually but digital media ad business grows 100% annually. Still small but significant growth. Mobile marketing is an area where brands in Indonesia can do a lot more". Given that people are now almost always on their mobile devices, "brands will have to follow".

XL Axiata's head of mobile advertising Wijaya Santoso stresses the importance of collaboration. He admitted that since the revenue from the voice and SMS businesses across the board have flattened in recent times, mobile advertising will play a significant role in the company's income and working with ad2c will certainly help that. "The only way to skyrocket this industry is to work hand in hand and find the solutions together", said Santoso.