InMobi group's Glance all set to enter consumer tech sector in the US

Lock screen mobile digital content platform Glance, whi­ch is the second unicorn from the InMobi group and has Google as an investor, is all set to storm the north Ame­rican market with its consumer-led content services.  

The company will be amo­ng the first Indian players to enter the consumer tech sector in the US. It is in advanced talks to tie up with mobile firms  which include Tracfone, AT &T and Verizon to offer the platform to customers bundled with their phones.

The service is expected to be rolled out some time in September and Glance has alr­eady set up a la­rge team in San Francisco to oversee the project. Next on the agenda will be an entry into the Latin American market. Google is one of the inve­stors in Glance, giving $145 million recently. Sources say talks are on for a fresh round of funding very soon.   

Glance is a platform which provides a range of feed to consumers which includes news, entertainment, sports, video games and also short videos (like TikTok) on the lock screen of a mobile phone.

It is also launching influe­ncer-based e-commerce in India which will be rolled out in the US in the second phase.  However, to offer the service, it has to tie up with mobile device makers or telcos (as in the US where the bundling of the phone with the service is common). In India, Glance has Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Samsung as its partners.   

Glance is expected to hit around 150 million customers across India and abroad and has a growing base in south east Asia. According to sour­ces, it is targeting to hit 100 million customers in the APAC region — it has services in Indonesia and Thailand - from the current figure of 30 million. An official spokesperson of the InMobi group declined to comment on its US plans. The group is also taking its flagship digital cloud-powered advertising business public and is in  the process of listing it on NASDAQ this year.

According to sources, the IPO will be for $1-1.5 billion with a valuation of $10-15 billion. InMobi is the first unic­orn in the country after Soft­bank decided to invest $200 million in the firm in 2011. At that time, Softbank CEO Masayoshi San had given the co-founder, Naveen Tiwari, only one target: Go and conquer the US and Chi­na. Tiwari has acted fast on at least one part of that injunction. The US, after all, is its largest market for mobile advertising.

When it comes to entering the influencer-led e-commerce space, however, Glance is making a big gamble. Curr­ently its revenue model is dep­endent on advertising  and it has over 45 key advertising partners.

E-commerce will provide Glance with another key so­urce of revenue. Glance will offer impulsive buying choices for customers in products ran­ging from fashion accessories and electronics to consumer goods and gourmet foods.

It has created an end-to-end e-commerce platform but has chosen to tie up with partners for logistics and payment instead of investing itself in these spaces, a move which allows it to concentrate on last mile delivery.