Yahoo! India intensifies role in video advertising

Yahoo! India is going  to venture into the online video advertising space. The digital  giant has announced its offerings to leading marketers to reach their target audiences through online video messaging. The company based the decision on its assessment that movies, TV shows and sports are the fastest growing categories in the audio-video segment in India  and that over 30 million Internet users in India consume online video regularly, leading to over 1.8 billion video streams every month.

Yahoo!’s venture comes in the wake of a significant surge in online advertising spending in India. As per a recent report by the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers ( PWC)  the size of online advertising industry registered a growth of 28.3% in 2010 and is bound to surge in 2011-2012. The medium is set to evolve in coming years as it offers immense possibilities for targeted communication. However, as per recent reports on digital expenditure, the medium continues to remain highly under-monetised.

In India, online advertising constitutes only 3.75 per cent of the total ad spend, which is to the tune of USD 2 billion annually. Yahoo! India aims to secure a sizable market share from the fast growing advertising spending through  audio-video ad formats online.

This platform offers a definite opportunity to advertisers and marketers providing them the potential for significant brand interaction and awareness building by reaching the target audiences in an engaging environment. The true power of the video ad is that it is highly complementary to the brands investing in the television business.