Indiatimes to start mobile advertising service by year-end

Leading value added services provider Indiatimes.Com is planning to launch an advertising service on mobile phones by the end of this year.     

"The service 'Adringles' is based on ring back tone medium which allows advertisers for lead generation benefiting all stakeholders, including mobile operators, subscribers and advertisers," Indiatimes.Com MD and CEO Dinesh Wadhawan said.     

"We are currently running the trials which would be completed in next four to six weeks and the service will be available to mobile users by the end of this year, most probably by December end," he said.     

According to the revenue model, advertisers would pay Indiatimes while the VAS player would share the revenue with the operator whose subscribers have registered for the service.     

Indiatimes has partnered with StratosHear Technologies to offer this market place to advertisers.     

The registration for the Adringles service would most probably be free of cost, said the company.     

Globally the mobile advertising market is worth $10 billion according to Wireless World Forum.

In India the current mobile advertising market is worth Rs 25 crore and is expected to reach Rs 500 crore by 2011.