iWorld
Facebook partners with VivaConnect to scale-up its ‘Missed Call’ ad unit business
MUMBAI: Keeping in tune with trends of emerging markets, Facebook has launched ‘Missed Call’ ad unit business in the feature phone heavy Indian market. To scale-up its reach over mobile devices, Facebook has partnered with VivaConnect for its missed call platform. VivaConnect holds India’s largest infrastructure for voice and missed call services.
The ‘missed call’ advertisement is Facebook’s first foray into mobile service to empower advertisers effectively reach their consumers in developing markets. India, the second most populated country in the world is quickly catching up to the US as Facebook’s biggest market. In last April, Facebook had announced the crossing of 100 million users in India and thus expects higher revenue from this emerging market.
The new missed call ad format comes in action as around 66 per cent Indians access Facebook on mobile devices of feature phone segment and a whopping 95 per cent of India’s mobile subscriber base has a pre-paid connection. A country where it’s a common norm among family and friends to dial a call and hang up after a ring expecting a response in return, the missed call ad format will definitely bolster brands advertising over Facebook, happening on mobile.
“Consumer behavior in high-growth markets is changing very rapidly and we are poised to respond to that as quickly as possible. We see brands delivering useful and entertaining content like sports scores, news, or celebrity messages that people find valuable enough to take the time to listen to and interact with. There is also a good tie-in for direct response advertisers who can use the missed call unit as lead generation, where a person is essentially raising their hand and expressing interest in a good or service,” said Facebook product marketing manager for emerging markets Maxine Schlein.
When a person sees an ad on Facebook they can place a ‘missed call’ by clicking the ad from their mobile device in the return call, the person will receive valuable content, such as music, cricket scores or celebrity messages, alongside a brand message from the advertiser, all without using airtime or data.
The combination of user’s social data assembled over Facebook and the reach offered by VivaConnect’s missed call platform, together will allow brands to effectively target their consumers with the right kind of advertising. Content will be personalised effectively, matching up the highly diverse Indian user base. Also, mobile access will grant an individual reach for retargeting consumers in brands subsequent activities.
“Facebook has been a hot trend over mobile in India and so have been missed call services. Together they would be a perfect solution for delivering an enhanced brand experience over Mobile. Missed calls offer an instant way to spark the conversations,” said VivaConnect managing director Vikram Raichura.
Facebook’s ‘Missed call’ advertisement is a harbinger of great things to follow leveraging brand-consumer connect over mobile.
Gaming
MTG gaming chief Benninghoff joins NODWIN board as esports firm primes for IPO
The Gurugram-based esports firm is pursuing a public listing, has returned to profitability and is growing revenues by 42 per cent
GURUGRAM: NODWIN Gaming is moving fast. The Gurugram-based gaming and esports company has launched a pre-IPO fundraising round, appointed UBS as lead adviser for both the round and a subsequent public listing, and landed a heavyweight board director, all in one go.
The new board member is Arnd Benninghoff, executive vice president of gaming at Stockholm-listed Modern Times Group (MTG), who has overseen the group’s strategic investments and portfolio growth since 2014. He is no stranger to building things: Benninghoff has founded and built fifteen companies, served as chief digital officer at ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, managing director of SevenVentures, and chief executive of Holtzbrinck eLAB. He began his career as a journalist at Deutsche Presse Agentur and various TV networks, holds a Diplom-Kaufmann in business and administration from the University of Münster, and previously sat on the board of Edgeware AB.
The numbers back the ambition
NODWIN is not pitching a story without substance. The company has returned to EBITDA profitability and posted a 42 per cent year-on-year revenue surge, reaching $58.5m in the first nine months of FY2026. The pre-IPO round will combine a primary issuance to fund global expansion through organic growth and acquisitions, alongside a secondary sale to give existing shareholders some liquidity.
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, said Benninghoff understands “the entire lifecycle of the gaming and media ecosystem, from the boots-on-the-ground reality of building startups to the strategic complexity of managing multi-billion dollar global portfolios.”
Benninghoff, for his part, said the company “sits at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and technology, making it one of the most exciting players in the global gaming landscape today.”
A portfolio built for the global south
Founded in 2014 by Rathee and Gautam Virk, NODWIN has quietly assembled one of the more compelling esports portfolios outside the Western hemisphere. Its properties include DreamHack India and Comic Con India, and it recently acquired StarLadder, the Ukraine-based tournament organiser behind premier events in CS:GO and Dota 2. The company also serves as a long-term strategic marketing partner for the Evolution Championship Series (EVO), the world’s most prominent fighting game tournament, helping push it into new geographies.
Its geographic focus spans South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Backers include Nazara Technologies, KRAFTON, Sony Group Corporation, JetSynthesys, and the founders’ investment vehicle Good Game Investments.
What comes next
With UBS running the books, a board freshly reinforced with European media and gaming expertise, and revenue heading in the right direction, NODWIN is laying the groundwork deliberately. The esports industry has burned investors before with big promises and thin margins. NODWIN’s return to profitability, combined with a real portfolio of owned intellectual properties across gaming, music and youth culture, gives it a more credible runway than most. The IPO clock is now ticking.
