Tag: Outbrain

  • Akshay Mathur’s new venture promises to turn platform ambition into cold, hard cash across Asia

    Akshay Mathur’s new venture promises to turn platform ambition into cold, hard cash across Asia

    MUMBAI: After two decades of making other people’s platforms profitable, Akshay Mathur has decided it’s time to build his own money-making machine. The adtech veteran has launched Unpromptd, a revenue infrastructure firm targeting digital platforms across Asia’s most lucrative—and complex—markets.

    Mathur, who recently departed his role as chief revenue officer at Tyroo after six years, believes platforms have had quite enough strategy presentations, thank you very much. What they need, he argues, is someone who can actually turn their grand ambitions into recurring revenue streams.

    “Platforms don’t need more strategy decks,” Mathur declared while announcing t the launch. “They need real execution, revenue accountability, and a partner who understands the complexity of scaling in markets like India, southeast Asia, and the Middle East.”

    The timing is hardly accidental. Asia’s digital advertising market has been on a tear, with platforms scrambling to monetise everything from social commerce to gaming. But many stumble when it comes to the nitty-gritty of revenue generation—precisely where Mathur sees opportunity.

    His pedigree suggests he knows whereof he speaks. At Komli Media, Mathur was part of the managing board that engineered a 10-fold jump in net profits before the company’s eventual acquisition by Dentsu Aegis Network in 2017 for an undisclosed sum. At Tyroo, he built monetisation partnerships with the likes of Meta, Twitter, Snapchat, Outbrain and Criteo, helping these global giants crack complex Asian markets.

    The 22-year industry veteran has witnessed first hand how the right operating model can unlock value that often sits tantalizingly out of reach. His new venture promises to be the bridge between platform potential and profit realisation.

    Unpromptd’s mission is straightforward: become the monetisation partner of choice for every digital platform serious about growth in Asia. It’s an ambitious target in a region where local nuance can make or break even the most sophisticated global strategies.

    Mathur’s approach combines hard-won experience with what he calls “precision execution”—a recognition that Asia’s next growth wave will belong to those who move first and move smart. With platforms increasingly desperate to prove their business models beyond user acquisition, Unpromptd arrives at a moment when such expertise commands premium prices.

    The venture launches from Gurugram, positioning itself at the heart of India’s digital economy while eyeing expansion across the broader Asian market. For platforms tired of beautiful presentations that fail to move the revenue needle, Mathur’s promise of accountability over aspiration may prove irresistible.

    Whether Unpromptd can deliver on its bold promises remains to be seen. But with Asian digital advertising spend continuing its relentless march upward, the demand for Mathur’s particular brand of monetisation magic has never been stronger.

  • Surbhi Nagpal heads to Wion and Zee Business as national head sales

    Surbhi Nagpal heads to Wion and Zee Business as national head sales

    MUMBAI: She’s moving out of Outbrain and into Zee Media. Sales hotshot Surbhi Nagpal will be leading national sales for Wion and Zee Business.. Based in Noida, Nagpal will spearhead efforts to drive revenue generation, optimise sales operations, and enhance the profitability of both the channels.

    Surbhi has more than 20 years of work experience in both and linear and digital sales, having worked at companies such as  NDTV India, Outbrain, Discovery Communications India, and Disney+ Hotstar.

    The post graduate diploma holder in international business had the right start to her career when she joined Taj Hotels in Delhi in 2001 and rose to become deputy manager sales within four years. She then worked at American Express for a brief period before tasting blood in television sales  when she joined NDTV India  as a senior sales manager looking after NDTV Good Times and NDTV Lifestyle.

    She moved to Aidem Ventures for a while after which she rejoined NDTV Lifestyle as vice-president sales –  a post she held for more than three years. Her impressive profile got her next assignment as national head international business at Star India. She was shifted to Disney+Hotstar as national vertical head for FMCG (F&B). Challenging though her job was, she parted ways after nearly three years to join Discovery Communications as director sales. Three and a half years later she moved on to join Vikram Chandra’s editorji when Outbrain came calling.

    Her comprehensive knowledge and wide exposure to the media sector, combined with her ability to adapt to shifting market conditions, positions her as a key driver of growth at Zee Media, going forward.

  • Outbrain sets date for 2022 annual advertiser conference ‘Unveil’

    Outbrain sets date for 2022 annual advertiser conference ‘Unveil’

    Mumbai: Outbrain Inc has announced the date of its 2022 annual advertising innovation conference ‘Unveil,’ which is set to take place in March.

    Unveil 2022 is a digital innovation roadshow that will run for a single day across three time zones – on 15 March for the Americas, 16 March for EMEA and 17 March for APAC. The event is now open for early registration.

    “Unveil is a key event for advertisers” said Outbrain chief revenue officer Eytan Galai. “It’s Outbrain’s chance to share our most exciting innovations and new platform capabilities as an opportunity for advertisers to learn about new tools and platform features designed to help them stay ahead of the game.”

    “We are wrapping up one of the most exciting years in Outbrain’s history,” said Outbrain vice president of product Lior Charka. “We have invested a lot in product innovation and have been working on powerful new ways for advertisers to engage and acquire customers in the open web using Outbrain.”

    Unveil 2022 will be a fully virtual event featuring Outbrain’s creativity, performance and simplicity solutions.

  • Outbrain India onboards Mehul Rao as head of engage

    Outbrain India onboards Mehul Rao as head of engage

    Mumbai: Outbrain, a recommendation platform for the open web, on Thursday announced the onboarding of Mehul Rao as head of engage in India. 

    Rao, who previously served as general manager-corporate at Times Internet, brings 14 years of digital and media expertise to the new role. His prior leadership roles include associate vice president digital at Times Network, associate vice president corp planning and strategic alliances at NDTV Convergence.

    “We are excited to have Mehul join the Outbrain team. Outbrain will be poised to expand the list of top premium publisher partners in the region” stated managing director India Shouneel Charles. “We are sure that Mehul will help publishers achieve their key goals using Outbrain’s platform to recommend personalised content and boost revenue.”  

    In his new role, he will be responsible for expanding top premium publisher partners in India.

    “After working and spending a good amount of time in publishing business in various revenue related roles, it’s an exciting move for me in native advertising and digital ad tech space,” said Mehul Rao. “India is poised to be one of the fastest-growing digital advertising markets and I am privileged to work with Outbrain, an established market leader across the world, increasing its reach in India, looking forward to working in this region to scale the business and be instrumental in the next growth phase of Outbrain in India.”

  • Outbrain begins to rollout of new Native Header Bidding solution

    Outbrain begins to rollout of new Native Header Bidding solution

    Mumbai: Outbrain Inc, a leading recommendation platform for the open web has announced the global rollout for a new Native Advertising Header Bidding solution designed to help media partners boost their monetisation strategy by enabling Outbrain to serve ads on any ad placement.

    Native Header Bidding allows the Outbrain advertising engine to programmatically bid into the display and video ad units to serve Outbrain Native Ads. This strategic move is designed to help Outbrain media partners maximize revenue from traditional ad units while creating more opportunities for Outbrain advertisers to show their ads and engage customers with Outbrain Native Ads.

    “We are committed to innovate and help media partners in the open web fund content creation. With Native Header Bidding our goal is to help our partners maximise revenues while delivering a better advertising experience to consumers through Outbrain Native Ads,” said Outbrain chief revenue officer Eytan Galai. “Native Header Bidding unlocks new revenue potential by creating more advertising opportunities for Outbrain while increasing yield on traditional display and video ad placements.”

    Outbrain enters the Header Bidding space by leveraging its deep integration with media partners which provides unique visibility into contextual performance and behavioral interest signals, enabling bidding efficiency. The result is a more personalised and relevant ad experience for the consumer and maximum performance for marketers.

    “Up until now, Outbrain ads were only shown in our recommendation feed but with Native Header Bidding, we now show ads also on display and video ad placements.” said Outbrain VP of advertising Ayal Steiner. “The expected result is that users will experience more relevant ads served through native ad experiences that are much more user friendly, and Outbrain advertisers will benefit from more ad inventory which creates new opportunities to engage potential customers on the open web.”

    Outbrain’s Native Header Bidding leverages open web header bidding standards with Outbrain remaining an active member and contributor to prebid.org. Outbrain now begins a global rollout of Native Header Bidding with strategic media partners.

  • Outbrain Announces New Strategic Global Partnership with Opera to Bring Native Advertising to Browsers

    Outbrain Announces New Strategic Global Partnership with Opera to Bring Native Advertising to Browsers

    Outbrain, the world's leading discovery and native advertising platform on the open web, today announced a new partnership with multi-platform web browser Opera

    Through the partnership, marketers will now have access to inventory across Opera’s ad network, served programmatically through Outbrain’s advertising platform, Amplify. Buyers are now equipped with direct access to Opera Ad Exchange, a global mobile and in-app-focused programmatic advertising marketplace reaching 285 million users worldwide including 53 million in India, 31 million in Indonesia and 7.5 million in the Philippines. 

    Opera’s owned and operated inventory including Opera News, Opera Mini, and Opera Browser, will now be available to Outbrain marketers on a global scale. In addition, they’ll be able to connect to audiences from Opera’s extensive range of partners across leading mobile phone brands, including Novo, Xiaomi, Oppo Mobile, and vivo thanks to pre-installed Opera Browser and News Apps on these devices.

    “We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Opera,” said Victor Charpin, Head of Platform at Outbrain. “This is a great opportunity to provide our advertisers with quality inventory on one of the largest app publishers in the world. Traditionally, web browsers are not known to run native ads within it’s networks. We’re flipping the script — and making it possible for marketers to connect to their target audiences within premium, engaging environments, and truly native formats.”

    “Outbrain has proven to be a leader in the native advertising space. At Opera, our browsers have helped 285 million people access the internet to read, create, laugh, and play. By joining forces, our partnership with Outbrain allows us to connect with consumers on a wider scale," said De Barros Marcio, Head of French Speaking Africa and Programmatic at Opera Software.
     
    Effective immediately, Outbrain marketers can begin buying Opera premium inventory at scale. To learn more, contact us.
     

  • Dailythanthi and Outbrain sign native ad partnership deal

    Dailythanthi and Outbrain sign native ad partnership deal

    MUMBAI: Outbrain, the world's leading discovery and native advertising platform on the open web, announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Dailythanthi, the leading Tamil media portal with 9.47 Million Unique visitors a day and 42 million Page views a month.

    The new partnership will allow DailyThanti to fully leverage Engage suite of tools offered by Outbrain, and enable them to marry editorial curation with personalization, drive audience growth and engagement, and increase revenue opportunities. The Outbrain Discovery Platform will power organic content, driving further recirculation of the publishers own content, but also the amplification of personalized sponsored recommendations.

    “We are delighted to collaborate with DailyThanthi and help enhance their digital strategy. Regional publishers are an essential part of Outbrain’s strategy in India, and this new deal reinforces the quality of our network and opens up new audiences to our advertisers. We look to the future with confidence and, therefore, we are very proud to start this collaboration and work with one of the leading regional publishers,” said Outbrain India Head Sandeep Balani.

    “Partnering with a smart and innovative company like DailyThanthi, who are open to new formats and technologies is a key to our strategy. This openness to innovation enables sustainable growth. We look forward to giving them the opportunity to rethink their audience experience, and to roll out many new formats over the coming months.” said Outbrain India Director of Business Development Anand Makhija. 

    Furthermore, this partnership with Dailythanthi increases Outbrain's reach, allowing it to tap into a key regional audience as reaches over a 9.47 million users every month.

  • Outbrain expands its network in the south with Oneindia to Drive New Growth For Publishers

    Outbrain expands its network in the south with Oneindia to Drive New Growth For Publishers

    MUMBAI: Outbrain, the world’s leading discovery and native advertising feed for the open web, announced today a new long term partnership with Oneindia publishing group. The deal will include installing Outbrain across all their online sites as well as their Daily Hunt Platform. Through this integration, Oneindia will utilize Outbrain’s Engage solution to further escalate its digital strategy, drive monetisation and power customized and personalised content journeys across its network. 

    “We are committed to building long term, strategic relationships with our publishers, and enable them through our technology and expertise to build sustainable business models that will future-proof their businesses,” said Sandeep Balani, the head of India at Outbrain. He added, “Our vision is to enable Oneindia to create and monetize the best online experiences for their audiences while giving brands a platform to connect with their customers and create meaningful engagements through best in class storytelling.” 

    Outbrain’spersonalised content recommendations will be seamlessly integrated across the desktop and mobile sites of Oneindia and will allow the publisher to fully leverage the Outbrain technology platform to maximise their monetisation opportunities and drive deeper engagement and audience growth.

    “Partnership with Outbrain is the right strategic decision for us at this time. Outbrain’s technology platform provides effective tools to help drive revenue for Oneindia. Outbrain has a proven track record of delivering value to publishers amidst a tumultuous media environment,” says Sudhir Sundrani Monetization & Ad-Performance Director.

    “We are very excited about this partnership with Oneindia. Our aim at Outbrain is to provide smart and flexible technology that drives personalised content recommendations while optimising revenue. We look forward to building a strong partnership together.” said Anand Makhija, Director of Business Development at Outbrain.

    The deal will include Oneindia’s other online properties such as Goodreturns, NativePlanet, FilmiBeat, Boldsky, GizBot, DriveSpark, MyKhel, CareerIndia. The reach of the combined sites gives Outbrain advertisers extensive access to audiences in South India on sites in seven languages including English. The continued expansion of its publisher network across all major verticals in India further extends the content marketing opportunity for brands in this region and significantly increases marketers ability to strengthen their audience relationships and get their content discovered.
     

  • Outbrain appoints SVG Media as sales partner

    MUMBAI: Outbrain, the leading global discovery platform, has announced that it has entered into a sales partnership in India with SVG Media- India’s largest Digital Media Company, recently acquired by Dentsu Aegis Network.

    SVG Media, soon to be known as SVG Columbus, has been appointed as the official Sales Partner in India for Outbrain. It will help the company to continue to grow its presence and strengthen its foundation in India, allowing Outbrain to further penetrate the market.

    SVG Media will allocate a workforce of over 10 digital experts across offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and will support Outbrain in working with brands all over the country. Since its launch in early 2014, Outbrain has experienced massive growth in India, and the partnership will further strengthen its presence in the market at a time when the company is more than ever advancing its product and services to provide something truly valuable for its clients.

    “Since entering the market in 2014, India has proven to be a market with huge potential for Outbrain and we’ve observed tremendous growth over the past few years,” said Outbrain HoD – APAC Chris Mockford.

    Outbrain sales director for India Neeraj Singhal commented: “Outbrain continues to be the medium of choice for brands across all industry sectors that wish to reach relevant audiences in India. Through this partnership with SVG Media we will be able to serve our clients, as well as better deploy our technology, tools, proprietary analytics and insight capabilities.”

    Komli SVP Akshay Mathur said, “SVG brings unparalleled understanding of the Indian market and execution capabilities. This is the reason why majority of the world’s leading companies are choosing us for setting up their India business. We are delighted to partner with Outbrain and look forward to supporting them in building their India business.”

    SVG Media CEO Anurag Gupta commented, “We’re incredibly excited about the potential for this new partnership. Outbrain’s superb reputation is entirely in-sync with the reputation that SVG Media has worked so hard to create in India.” He added: “SVG Media works with almost all the leading brands in India and we look forward to bringing them on Outbrain’s unique discovery solution”.

    Over the last six years, SVG Media has been the India market entry partner for the leading Internet brands, including Facebook, Twitter, OLX, LinkedIn, Zynga and others. These companies have chosen SVG Media because of its unmatched understanding of India’s emerging digital advertising market. The company has also contributed aggregate revenues of $2 billion to its international partners.

    Outbrain continues to advance Discovery in Asia and has spent the past five years on the ground educating the market and building the largest network of premium sites for discovery. The continued expansion of the company significantly increases the marketer’s ability to build audiences and drive discovery for their brands.

    Outbrain’s growing reach combines local premium publications, such as the Indian Express, The Hindu, Moneycontrol, Business Standard and ESPNcricinfo, in addition to global sites like CNN, ESPN, Time Inc. and BBC. Worldwide, it serves over 250 billion recommendations per month and reaches in the region of a billion users every month across the globe.

  • India.com inks multi-year partnership with Outbrain

    India.com inks multi-year partnership with Outbrain

    MUMBAI: India.com and Outbrain have entered into a multi-year strategic partnership. 

    The deal will empower the media company and its properties – including Zeenews.com, dnaindia.com, Bollywoodlife.com, Cricketcountry.com, OnCars.in,Prepsure.com, BGR.in, Careerfundas.com, TheHealthSite.com, Travel.india.com and Video.india.com – to fully leverage the Outbrain guided personalisation platform. 

    The platform will empower India.com to manage content recommendations, maximise monetisation of their audience to other content publishers, drive increased audience engagement, and provide key insights and analytics about their core digital users.

    India.com has also confirmed their plans to implement Outbrain’s recently launched product, Native In-Feed. The product, announced last month, allows publishers including India.com for the first time to use the Outbrain platform to serve native, in-stream advertising. Through Native In-Feed, Outbrain partners will now be able to sell their own campaigns and use Outbrain’s UI and tools to seamlessly deliver these campaigns to their audiences.

    India.com COO Sandeep Amar said, “We are really happy to partner with Outbrain, and use their technology and products to makes sure our users and advertisers get benefits from it. We are confident they will deliver the highest quality recommendations and best monetisation options for India.com. We look forward to bringing the Outbrain solutions to our advertising partners in India.”

    Outbrain GM SEA and India Gulshan Verma added, “Over the last few months, we’ve increasingly observed publishers integrating their services into their sales platforms, allowing for more native placements. Previously, most of the Outbrain content was contained in a widget at the bottom of the page but, by working with the publisher’s direct sales teams, we have now started serving content in premium locations like the right rails, homepages, mobile pages, thus providing better customer experience for the reader and monetisation opportunities for publishers in India.”