AI will Play a Key Role in the Next Wave of Tech Adoption Via Mobile Phones

MoMAGIC started off, with the idea of offering R&D driven software differentiation enhancement service to handset and phone manufacturers and aimed to bring in content-driven value-added offerings to the end user, in the earlier days of 2011, is today a recognized key partner for brands, OEMs, startups and Ad agencies for Digital Ad Tech (mobile) marketing campaigns. In an exclusive conversation with Voice&Data,  Arun Gupta, CEO & Founder, MoMAGIC, talks about the MoMAGIC Ad Intelligence Platform,  the challenges faced by the company and how the company is providing better protection to customers from cyber threats. Excerpts:-

Q. What are the challenges faced by the company?

In the earlier years of inception, the challenges faced were of Mobile Internet infra being slow and expensive. Secondly, it was about awareness and acceptability.  No one was aware, nor ready to pay for content or add-on services /offerings on mobile. Neither the operators were ready to, part with their revenues nor customers ready to pay and it was the equally challenging task to discuss innovative ways of product improvisation to OEMs without a valid ROI.  Adding to the challenges were the small mom and pop shops/companies that were undercutting the pricing for the services, whatever was initially getting into the market thus leaving it very difficult for companies who were looking at bringing in impact via leveraging technology such as MoMAGIC, with an eye for global footprints.

However, now the challenge is of technology and keeping the human touch balance, in the Brand Campaign offerings.  How to make the Campaigns more responsive and afresh for the end USER and that requires round the clock, data modeling and customization to make the impact in the growing clutter.

With the shortening of the attention span and everyday innovation and technology enhancement, customer targeting is getting more and more localized-customized and content increasingly become the supreme. Making content paid by the USER is still a concern, however.

Q. How is Digital transformation in India different from other countries? How will it influence the current scenario?

Technological innovation and Digital Transformation, has taken the world by storm and has created a stir, not only amongst corporate and professionals but common man too.

India is one of the leading nations to adopt technology at a rapid pace, across its industries and sectors, especially in the last decade or so.  This trend is more visible in the mobile and digital AD Tech space with over 1.2 billion mobile phones in use as of 2017, which is just behind China and is almost 4 times the size of the mobile users in the US.  And this has been the major differentiating factor between India and other countries, as far as Digital Transformation is concerned….

From road mapping to providing you with shortcuts dedicated to your destination, to flights updates to medical care to school admissions, to now customized e-shopping updates; digital transformation via AI is everywhere and it is only pertinent that it will grow further, with the kind of impetus being given by GOI in making it easy for common man in meeting out its daily life challenges, via digitization. For India, it becomes more relevant with its huge population base and diversity.

Data costs now being one of the lowest in the world, starting from $2-$3 per month for over 40GB of data, has led to faster adoption of ‘digitization’, be it live video streaming which has taken the country by storm or its e-shopping or the push to digital payments. India, today is rated amongst the TOP countries as far as e-content consumption, is concerned. Video streaming is the big win in India. The digital transformation in India has not been a linear progression; it has been sporadic in the last decade or so if we analyze it in reference to global trends.

With global tech giants and mobile companies, increasingly launching their own AI enabled personal assistants; AI in digital transformation will play a key role in its growth exponentially and will surely influence the next wave of tech adoption via mobile phones.

India being, already ahead of the curve, in the mobile users' universe; many Indian tech mobile and e-Commerce startups and R&D focused education setups, will have increased focus and investment of resources in AI, ML and DM.

Q. What are your views on cybersecurity in India. How is it different from other countries? What is the company doing to provide better protection to customers from cyber threats in the future?

Be it Cyber Security or Data Privacy, it is specific to a country, to an extent. However, globally, the countries are moving in a direction of imposing stricter regulations on data privacy and cyber security, other than the already existing ones. The recently enacted General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law by EU on data protection and privacy for all companies, operating in the EU region is the natural step to safeguard customer’s private information and we expect other countries to follow suit.

In India, too, be it Cyber laws or Data Protection and Privacy laws, its always been a matter of concern and debate and off late taken-up very seriously by the authorities and GOI, along with corporate and businesses. Talks are in a process, to have a new policy in place, which will make it more regulated and accountable.

The cybersecurity and data privacy concerns, become more significant in the case of Mobile Internet and AD Tech sector and be it large sized or mid-sized growing companies like MoMAGIC; it's a subject of utmost priority.    As far as MoMAGIC is concerned, we have always followed the laws of the land, operating in and the same shall be complied with, always, be it India or any other geography.

We believe smaller companies in the digital marketing business who tend to not complying with the existing Cyber laws and Data Privacy laws, of a country operating in, will now find it extremely difficult to operate in the current environment.  In a way its good, as this will help weed out the system and companies following laws and complying with regulations will not get churned along with the rest; and will be able to improve the business, getting better mapped and streamlined.

The company has put in measures and systems into place such as:  having world-class cloud systems those are country agnostics and give us freedom to move the servers to any country based on local law, taking due permission from users for any user-specific data we take, etc. for ensuring, that MoMAGIC’s access to USER Insights via Data Intelligence, Data Modeling etc., is legally compliant as per laws.

Q. The demands of customers are changing constantly today and with that, what types of new offerings you are bringing in to the forefront?

 Investing in R&D is a continuous process at MoMAGIC which has got more aligned with the setting up of the R&D center in Taiwan with 15+ engineers and another team of 50+ professionals in Noida, working in the space of Artificial Intelligence and Data Modeling and Machine Learning.

Experiments, Innovation, and Creativity with each campaign, is essential, as each Brand Campaign is different and here the MoMAGIC’s newly launched re-worked DMP (Data Management Platform), Ad Intelligence and Programmatic platform, plays a KEY role in running responsive mobile marketing campaigns and for CRM projects.

MoMAGIC Ad Intelligence Platform uses AI to identify and buy the best audience for campaign, using AI algorithms. This has been put into execution, for the current campaigns. It helps, predict the behavior of user’s, minute by minute. The Ad Intelligence Platform combines audience targeting, inventory, and bidding, resulting in optimization, taking the guesswork out of the campaigns.

MoMAGIC Programmatic Platform provides access to brand-safe, premium programmatic inventory on a global scale. Connect with the right digital users directly; ensuring brand has the optimum –relevant reach. The programmatic media buying can be set to target particular audiences and geo-locations of choice. With this, MoMAGIC is able to give an innovative way to seal the deals within advertising platform; there is no one-on-one price negotiations and tiring debates between the parties because ad buying is done automatically.