InMobi, the global mobile advertising network, appointed Isis Nyong'o as Africa vice president and managing director last week. Now present in South Africa, Africa's second-largest telecom market after Nigeria, InMobi wants to quickly expand its geographical footprint and boost its customer base.
Growth in mobile advertising in Africa is being driven by two major factors. Africa is flooded with a number of local, regional and international telecom service providers all competing for customers, causing a price war among the providers and the increase in supply and use of cheaper and better phones.
In addition, improving economic conditions in the region have continued to push forward the uptake of mobile advertising as many people are now able to browse the Internet on their phones, as well as make calls.
Pointing to Nyong'o's past achievements at Google, where she led business initiatives in Africa and specialized in mobile partnerships, InMobi hopes she will drive the company's growth across Africa. Nyong'o also developed a marketing strategy for Kenya's first online recruitment service, MyjobsEve.
"The availability of local content for use on mobile platforms is still a challenge, but I'm confident that we, in the mobile advertizing [sic] industry, can and will succeed in fostering a stronger content development focus on the continent," said Nyong'o in a statement.
Over the past two years, there has been a lot of talk about the mobile ecosystem in Africa, with recent reports pegging mobile subscribers in the region at more than half a billion.
InMobi's vice president of global research and marketing, James Lamberti, said Africa is a major market in the global mobile ecosystem.
According to an InMobi research network report released recently, mobile advertising impressions grew 19 percent in Africa in just 90 days. The report also said increased mobile Internet adoption delivered more than 250 million new monthly impressions.
InMobi claims to reach 50 million subscribers in Africa through nearly 3 billion ad impressions monthly. South Africa is the largest market, with 1 billion impressions and 20 million consumers monthly.
Although mobile adoption is relatively low among advertisers in Africa, it will need to grow if they are to reach their audiences, according to InMobi Research Director Surag Patel. South Africa and Kenya have continued their dominance as the top advertising countries in the region.