Emerging markets like India offering huge business opportunities for mobile advertising companies has lured US-based company Jana to launch an internet browser on Friday (today) for Android users which will enable consumers to surf the web by offsetting mobile data costs. The company will compete with the like of UC browser and Opera mini in the country.
“Untill now high data cost have made users more selective and data conscious, which has posed a challenge to advertisers trying to engage those users through mobile advertisements,” said Jana Co-founder and CEO Nathan Eagle.
“mCent Browser will not only provide an opportunity for users to freely browse the internet, but also offers advertisers a way to reach emerging markets consumers by integrating their brand into the browser experience,” he added.
Jana claims to be the largest provider of free data in emerging countries as it enables mobile connectivity in emerging markets by leveraging advertising to offset high data costs.
“We have raised nearly $92 million which we will be putting into both in India and other emerging markets, but India is our largest market,” said Eagle.
“A user of the browser, mCent, would initially get a data refund of up to 10 MB per day and 70 MB per week. Users will also be provided with unrestricted internet access to online content and as the numbers of advertisers go up data refund would also go up,” added Eagle.
The claims to have partnered with 99 per cent of the world’s mobile operators which enables them to reach over 1.3 billion Android smartphone users in 93 emerging markets. As of 2016, they claim to have successfully provided over 4.0 billion MB of free Internet worldwide to 30 million users.
The company has tied up with all telecom operators in India, including Reliance Jio, for smooth transition of its services. “India is the first country in which we are launching the browser and we are hoping to have at least 10 million users by the end of 2017,” he said.