A new look: Glance to offer generative AI content on TV lock-screens

Glance, a company which is part of the global mobile advertising platform, InMobi —  country’s first unicorn backed by Softbank — will soon use generative AI to provide users personalised content such as news, entertainment, sports, weather, gaming, travel, food as well as e-commerce, amongst others, in various languages on the lock-screen of your television.

Lock-screen (screen saver) is the pause state of a television set.

Reliance Jio has invested $200 million for a 17 per cent stake in Glance and Google along with others, have put in over $145 million. — the company has so far raised $400 million in total. Glance is already in advanced talks with smart TV original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and streaming services for offering the content to their customers. Testing for it has begun with a telecom company and a leading TV maker.

“Glance is a platform which effectively enables any device which can be AI-enabled. We are already using it to provide content on the mobile device lock-screen, and now we will extend the same on the TV lock-screen. Our aim is to hit 100 million TVs in India and the US in the next two years,” said Naveen Tewari, founder and chief executive officer (CEO), InMobi.

Glance, which last raised money in 2022, is valued at $1.7 billion.

With 220 million TV households and the fact that 93 per cent of TV sales in Q1 2024 were smart televisions, India is obviously a big market for companies like Glance.    

Glance has already penetrated the lock-screen of mobile devices such as Samsung, Xioami, Vivo, Oppo, Motorola and Realme, and has reached 400 million phones across the globe in countries such as India, the US, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Philippines, amongst others. Tewari says that two-thirds of its customers use it daily, adding that the company hopes to reach 1 billion devices in the next three years.

The revenue model for television will be more or less a replication of what it does on the mobile device: It will integrate its existing advertising platform on television to generate money on the lock-screen — a revenue share model with TV OEMs or broadband providers. It will also monetise through e-commerce, which will see the integration of its own video and online shopping  platform Roposo, apart from others.  

InMobi has been profitable from 2016 onwards and at one point was planning to list in the US. The plan was abandoned because the US markets fell. The company is one of the top 10-12 mobile advertising platform companies in the globe, and, according to Tewari, around $3-4 billion worth of advertising goes through its platform annually. 

The total mobile advertising pie globally is around $200 billion out of which  60-65 per cent goes through the top three tech platforms — Google, Meta and Amazon.

In FY23 Glance’s revenues went up by 77 per cent, a bulk of which came from advertising. However, it has continued to make losses.

A new look

Glance to reach lock-screen of 100 million TV sets in India and the US in the next two years

> Content will be available in various languages

> Offers customise content choice through AI

> Talks for partnership with TV OEMs and broadband players, including telcos open

> Will integrate its shopping platform Roposo with the lock-screen apart from others