Explosion of App Economy in Post-Covid World

We talked to Arpit Jain, cofounder and CEO at GreedyGame Media Pvt Ltd on how the firm is an end-to-end implementation, mediation and optimization platform for Ads and he had the following to say about it.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Arpit Jain: Covid-19 has given us unprecedented situations, and everyone around the world has had decisions to make which no one was prepared for. Although lockdowns ensured that we were stuck inside our homes, it has also given us the opportunity to be together with our family for longer periods. This has helped us steer through the period and keep hoping for the day when the world would be Covid-free.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded GreedyGame.

Arpit Jain: During my college days, I was intrigued by the sudden explosion of smartphone penetration. The one common and all-pervasive issue that I noticed was the user’s experience getting hurt because of interrupting ads. Although the ads are the most relevant way to monetize apps, the bad user experience eventually leads to loss of user retention and hence revenue for publishers. I wanted to solve this fundamental problem – how to run ads without disrupting user experience? In other words, – How to make ads fun and profitable? With the help of dedicated and like-minded teammates, we were able to build GreedyGame, India’s largest end-to-end implementation, mediation, and optimization platform for Native Ads on Mobile.

How does GreedyGame innovate? 

Arpit Jain: We study the market and strategize our products and services in a manner that they cater to the evolving and dynamic needs of the game/app publishers. We started GreedyGame with a mission to empower mobile developers to develop world-changing apps and build the most engaging games without constantly worrying about revenue. Hence, we created an end-to-end implementation, mediation, and optimization platform for ads.

Our core offering is SDK-X, which is a one stop shop for app developers. SDK-X is developed in a way that developers can sign up, integrate non-intrusive ads in their app, & start monetizing within hours.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Arpit Jain: Due to lockdowns and increasing activity on apps, the pandemic has created growth opportunities for our startup. The whole COVID situation brought a huge influx of gaming app users. 50% of mobile app users play games, second only to social media and communications apps in terms of time spent. Our data shows that 63% of our user base is gaming based, followed by utility & lifestyle at around 27%.

For a software company like ours, mitigating WFH wasn’t difficult. We have always followed an open culture with our employees, where teams have complete ownership of their products/tasks. This openness has helped us during WFH times as this helped them make quick decisions without depending on others. 

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Arpit Jain: Running a startup always gives you difficult choices to make. Add Covid to it, and it makes the situation a whole lot harder. We saw our revenues dip during the initial period of lockdown as most advertisers paused activities, especially in sports, travel, and event industries. We had to sustain ourselves during the tough times and ensure we keep on exploring growth opportunities. Fortunately, we sailed through the period without any layoffs and salary cuts. Everyone in the team responded by putting in more effort and worked tirelessly to make us ready for what turned out to be our biggest year in terms of revenues and clients.  

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Arpit Jain: I always believe that teams handle stress better than individuals. We have a culture of ownership at GreedyGame so that there is transparency to everyone. We celebrate success together and handle tough situations, no differently. I always get support from my team to tackle unpredictable situations and count on them to take bold decisions in adverse circumstances.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Arpit Jain: We have global competitors working on the native ads space. We believe that the mobile ads ecosystem is very big, and there are various opportunities to add value to publishers. Our partnerships with industry leaders in the space and unique positioning help us work with great publishers who keep us pushing to refine our offerings and make our products even more robust every day. 

Your final thoughts?

Arpit Jain: I believe that the world will come out stronger post the pandemic and hope that we reach there very soon. 

Your website?

https://greedygame.com/