MAM
Nimbuzz’s India focus is organic growth, acquisitions to follow
Mumbai: After shifting its main base to India from the Netherlands, Nimbuzz has decided to follow the organic growth path to settle down in the marketplace before it pursues acquisitions.
As a first step, the global mobile call and chat applications provider, which has raised $25 million in venture capital and strategic funding from Naspers and Mangrove Capital Partners, plans to expand its offerings in India to capitalise on the fast-growing mobile advertising business.
Says Nimbuzz head of operations Joby Babu, “Once the mobile advertising field starts posting steady growth rates, we may look at the inorganic route. Our focus now is the organic route and our methodologies for developing in India are working in our favour.”
The application developer has clear plans to launch more platforms over the next two to three months but has not frozen the ascending order of these service introductions in the country.
Says Babu, “We aim to become an integrated mobile application provider. Maybe, music will be next on the cards. Nothing can be said for sure, but we surely want to expand our portfolio.”
Founded by Evert Jaap Lugt in 2006, Nimbuzz has developed call and chat applications but does not have applications for services like music launched in India.
In order to foster growth in India, Nimbuzz has introduced applications and platform that have relevance and greater returns on investments for users as well as the advertisers.
“We have put in a lot of features and platform support to localise the kind of advertising support we have. The brands are really liking it and specially the creative agencies that work closely with the brands and this has kind of made us the default partner of choice for many brands when it comes to mobile advertising. The whole ecosystem of features is helping mobilise a lot of budgets in the mobile advertising field,” avers Babu.
One such feature introduced by Nimbuzz is the Hyper-local targeted ads (HLTA) which adds relevance to advertising. In this application, the user receives ads on the mobile according to the location. So if a user is walking into a mall, an advertisement will flash on his or her mobile giving information on a sale or a special offer at one of the shops. Some of the brands using this platform are KFC, Pizza Hut, some e-commerce portals and automobile brands like Mahindra XYLO.
Nimbuzz does not feel that it does not face any real competition in India as it offers multiple services and platforms under one umbrella. “Platforms like Whatssapp are our competitors in a way, but the advantage Nimbuzz has is that it has consolidated mobile services across chatting and social media,” he says.
Nimbuzz, which saw exponential growth in the past one year with its subscriber base more than doubling to 100 million, recently shifted its base to India from the Netherlands to be closer to Asia and the Middle East, its major markets that account for 61 per cent of its global subscribers.
The mobile advertising market in India is estimated to be of Rs 1 billion and is growing at approximately 50 per cent annually.
“India was doing very well for Nimbuzz and in order to get the best possible product for the market, it is important for it (the product) to be built there. The product managers need to understand what the users really love. We, thus, decided that product development and marketing will be operated out of India,” explains Babu.
Another reason for choosing India as the epicenter of its global operations is its convenient location to the fast growing markets.
“The geographies doing well for us include India and South East Asia, especially Indonesia, a little of Middle East and parts of Western Europe. So it is much easier for us to handle our business – product development and marketing – from here rather than from Europe. This puts India in the prime spot in the global operation,” says Babu.
The thrust on mobile advertising is increasing and this means growth opportunities for entities like Nimbuzz. The mobile advertising field is getting a fair share of the marketing pie with each passing campaign. The ratio of mobile advertising to the total advertising spends is also going up in the country, says Babu.
MAM
Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
