IMIMobile bets big on European market

Hyderabad-based IMIMobile is looking at aggressively tapping into the vast European value-added services (VAS) market.

The company has already made a foray into the continent by bagging a deal from Germany-based Jamba (also known as Jamster outside Germany) in October 2007.

Under the deal, IMIMobile will manage Jamba's new mobile services, including multi-million dollar ringtone crazy frog, besides providing round-the-clock technical support. The company plans to provide the same to Jamba within the next two quarters.

"Europe, a $40-billion VAS market, is pretty much on our strategic road map for 2008. We are looking forward to deals such as Jamba. We are looking at operators and media and entertainment tie-ups in Europe this year," Chairman and Managing Director AR Vishwanath told Business Standard, while refusing to divulge more details.

IMIMobile has a convergence lab at its Mauritius office, which carries out 3G-related development since 3G is not yet available in India.

The service trials for were conducted with Emtel, a local partner. Third generation, or 3G services, cover video portals, video ringback tones and a host of video and IMS-based services.

"A dedicated team of six engineers and four multimedia video specialists are working on the 3G platform in the Mauritius lab, which will be supplemented by additional teams for service creation and deployment at a later stage. We expect the 3G services to go live during the second quarter of 2008," he said.

The company has a mobile-based user generated content service running with an operator in Southeast Asia, while its video streaming trials are on with an operator in West Asia.

"We would be launching similar 3G services with a few more operators soon. Since these services are now moving to a trial stage, we will not be able to announce the operators till the official launch," he added.

According to Vishwanath, apart from India, the company operates in Latin and Central America and West Asia on a large scale.

"This year, we will be looking to expand our base to Africa and Europe, besides foraying into the $50-billion US market," he said. At present, IMIMobile services 50 operators worldwide and expects another 20 to 30 by 2008-end.

Indian operations contribute nearly 70 per cent to the company's topline. With the Latin American operations in full swing, it expects the non-Indian share to be around 40 per cent by the end of 2008, Vishwanath said.

IMIMobile employs around 316 worldwide, of which 220 work at its VAS Network Operations Centre (VNOC) in Hyderabad.

It raised $10 million from US-based venture capital investor Pequot Ventures in the second round of funding in June 2006, with the first being $3 million from UK-based VC firm NewMedia Spark in 2005.