Ad-tech firm Moloco bullish on China prospects

Moloco Inc, a Silicon Valley-based ad-tech solutions startup, is eyeing huge growth opportunities in the rapidly developing China market, as a rising number of Chinese companies in fields like gaming and e-commerce are seeking global expansion.

"China is one of our fastest growing markets. China is definitely important and growing for us," said Ikkjin Ahn, co-founder and CEO of Moloco.

On the revenue front, Ahn said it is currently evenly divided among three regions — Europe, the Middle East and Africa; Asia-Pacific; and the United States, among which the China market is the fastest-growing one.

"I'm always very impressed by Chinese tech companies and app developers," he told China Daily during a recent interview. "Among all the important trends, we are seeing Chinese advertisers most advanced in performance marketing. And they are also expanding globally very well."

Ahn said Moloco has served a wide range of Chinese clients in their going global process, including gaming companies, social media firms and e-commerce companies.

Compared to Moloco's clients in the rest of the world, he said Chinese companies, especially big tech firms, are "very far in advance in all of these new trends. And also they're not hesitant to try new media".

Looking ahead, Ahn said he believes the future global economy will center around East Asian areas with high populations, especially China. "So we are very much looking forward to working more with the Chinese clients."

Ahn's views were echoed by Zhu Xiaoxiao, head for Moloco Greater China region, who voiced optimism over China's economic prospects and added that the company will continue to invest in the Chinese market over the long run.

"China's economy is still very resilient," she said. "China's economy has been gradually picking up. For Moloco, we are precisely the kind of company that helps Chinese companies going overseas to realize better profits. In the next five to 10 years, we will keep providing more opportunities for Chinese developers to seize new activity (in overseas markets)."

Citing an ambitious business development plan this year, Zhu said Moloco has seen that overseas markets for Chinese companies going global may be worth $50 billion in 2025.

"That offers a great opportunity for Moloco. We hope to improve our own strength to continue to support Chinese developers (seeking global expansion)," she added.

Looking ahead, Zhu said Moloco will continue to invest in China to bring more new solutions for Chinese developers to expand globally.

Founded in 2013, Moloco now has 12 offices in countries including the United Kingdom, South Korea, China, Japan and Singapore, with more than 600 employees globally. The company enables its clients to analyze their big data to customize ads for various customers and monetize those ads with Moloco's machine-learning technology.

"I think the reason why we are able to have our advertisers go to the global market is actually we are helping them to target the right user segment, and select the right creatives in each market," Ahn said.

When it comes to localization in overseas markets, Zhu added that machine learning can provide clients with supplementary suggestions based on big data.

"It may provide more support in some places that (our clients) haven't covered, which is one of the biggest boosts for machine learning in localization."

A recent report by Israeli mobile marketing analytics company AppsFlyer said gaming is a highly representative industry for Chinese companies' overseas businesses, as mobile games steadily took up 64.9 percent of all the Chinese apps going overseas over the past four years. That is followed by financial apps and tool apps.

AppsFlyer said the fast-growing global gaming market is expected to reach $268 billion by 2025 and China is certain to take a huge share.

Wang Wei, general manager of AppsFlyer Greater China, said given the uncertainties in the approval of licenses for new game titles at home and the huge growth potential in overseas markets, global expansion will be increasingly important for Chinese gaming companies.