About a month after he joined InMobi, the world’s second-largest mobile advertising network, as country head for India from Google, Atul Satija was placed into the role of VP and MD for Asia-Pacific following the departure of Emmanuel Allix.
As head of business development for India at Google, he was responsible for driving its mobile business strategy and partnerships across the region.
“There are two main things that I’d like to bring to the table from my previous experience,” Satija said. “Firstly, since consumer insights are at the heart of our business, I will be able to use my previous experience with a B2C company by leveraging my understanding of consumers and their interaction with their mobile devices. Secondly, I plan to use my experience of taking up new high-growth businesses and scaling them up to help craft InMobi’s regional growth strategy.”
His strategy for taking InMobi to greater heights falls on two main priorities. “First, we intend to invest more in the region, by hiring more talent, especially in Southeast Asia and Australia. The second priority is to focus on individual countries in the region as independent markets and building a locally relevant strategy that'll help us leverage the opportunities in that market,” he explained.
Although he feels inMobi is very heavily invested in the region, Satija is of the view that more investment can be made. “We need to be more aggressive, starting with Indonesia and Malaysia. We will start beefing up local teams, and develop a strong APAC strategy and ascertain the tools and approaches we need to grow.”
Satija thinks that there is still plenty of room to grow in the mobile advertising market. “Inmobi has done well over the last year, and the business has grown exponentially over Asia and Southeast Asia. We’re preparing for a growth acceleration, and acting on the optimism of the overall mobile advertising market,” he said. “The increased penetration of smartphones has brought about a significant change in people’s mobile appetite and preferences as opposed to what was earlier being seen with normal feature phones.”
Satija remains based in Bangalore but said he will be travelling to Singapore and the region regularly. “If, down the line, the business requires that I relocate, I’m open to the idea,” he said.
