Tokyo listed Adways Inc. has bought 13.8% stake in indian affiliate marketing company VC Internet Media.
The investment amount remains undisclosed. However Adways has the option of eventually hiking its stake to 66% over three phases by the end of this fiscal.
Last October the two had revealed their strategic and capital partnership to expand into the Indian web advertising market. Prior to that Adways established itself in India by commencing its New Delhi branch in June as a market research and business development hub.
VC Internet Media was formed in 2007 by Tarang Bhargava and Parul Mehta and in 2008 they commenced an affiliate network – vCommission.
This partnership is an ideal step forwards towards our grand plan in becoming the No.1 affiliate marketing player in Asia” said Adways Executive Vice President, Junko Yoshino. “Adways’ strengths is its ability to seek out potential opportunity and moving onto it with great speed and intensity. This is how our founder became the youngest CEO to IPO in Japan and how we became the #1 affiliate player in Japan and China. To become the # 1 player in Asia, India is a vital market and we believe we were able to form an alliance with a fitting partner. VC Internet Media also has a great culture to move on things with velocity and we believe this quality has a perfect synergy with Adways.
vCommission was India’s first international affiliate network and initially focused on U.S & U.K markets till 2010. With the current focus on the Indian market, it has serviced over 100 Indian brands with a publisher base of approx. 11,000 registered affiliates/publishers.
Adways, headquartered in Tokyo with offices in China, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and U.S.
It runs the largest mobile affiliate network in Japan as well as the largest smartphone app distribution service.
The deal is structured to work as a JV with Adways involved in the day-to-day operations with expertise and VC Internet provides the Indian experience and client relationships.
Medianama also provides us with some of the deals in this space. ShooGloo Affiliate Marketing was rebranded last year and Tyroo & Anurag Gupta acquired DGM India for R3.35 Cr.
