mGinger mulls regional language services

mGingersoft Media Private Limited (mGinger), an opt-in permission-based mobile advertising company headquartered in Bangalore, is contemplating introducing regional languages services.

"The new strategy is to help our advertisers reach out to their target customers better. We have been receiving enquiries from apparel store chains such as Chandana Brothers in Andhra Pradesh besides stores in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. We are in the process of developing an in-house text messaging application to support regional languages. We plan to expand our subscriber base to include regional language users in Telugu and Hindi to start with," Chaitanya Nallan, chief executive officer of mGinger, told Business Standard, without disclosing further details.

mGinger will not be a one-product company anymore. The company is set to launch a bunch of services including a survey product for marketing research firms that would help reach a larger opt-in base at a very small cost, Nallan said.

The company has piloted its second product "� a push and pull campaign "� in the electronics segment on 30,000 consumers in Bangalore, wherein registered users were asked about their shopping plans for the weekend. Based on the feedback, mGinger sends them five best deals that are on offer in the city. The user not only receives his/her much-needed information but gets paid too.

"However, how much may be paid as a bounty to the user is at the discretion of the advertisers. We plan to launch both these products during the first quarter of the next financial year," he said.

mGinger, founded in April 2007, received $2 million (around Rs 8 crore) in its first round of funding from NEA IndoUS Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) around six months ago.

"Besides product development, we will infuse a part of these funds to build our sales network," he added. mGinger has sales offices in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. It is set to open offices in Delhi and Chennai next month.

Post the launch of new products and offices, Nallan said, the company expected its registered user base to grow to five million, from the existing 1.3 million, in a year's time. mGinger, which had sent 3 million SMSes during the last quarter, garnering a business of Rs 50 lakh, expects more than eight million SMSes to move through its service this quarter.