How to connect with users beyond Google and Facebook - Bharat Sharma from VEVE

[Music] we are now joined by baharash sh from B how you doing today I'm doing well yeah James how you doing very well we're back in San Francisco it's been the first timing since about 2018 or so so we've had a little pause it's great be back in this this B building thing where is crazy I know and and it looks amazing by the way it's it's crowded people are amazing and the right Community right here we're delighted that people have turned up it's there's lots of other options around GDC so we're humbled to be chosen but the folks who unfamiliar with VV and what you guys do tell us all about it all right so introducing myself my name is Barat I'm one of the co-founders at VV been with the company since the time it was started uh we basically at BB help game developers gaming Studios large and small get access to new users beyond the big Tech platforms such as Google and Facebook uh so what that means is we are helping Hardware manufacturers such as your Samsung your opo your Vivo your xiaomi

or Microsoft we are helping them monetize their software uh by by by kind of showing up ads inside their pre-bundled applications and uh we are driving uh new users for these game developers that scary Beyond big Tech so basically we are helping we are helping gaming Studios get access to users incremental users Beyond traditional big tag platforms which is interesting cuz like the way that UI works these days is on a number of different levels whether it's kind of advertising sort of banners or whether it's video but it's getting more and more expensive especially on iOS we notice that like cpis on Android for a video ad is like 80 cents whereas the same thing on Apple is over $5 right which is a stark difference and seems to mean that you need to spend an awful lot of money in apple to get make a game successful or make an app you know connect and reach an audience you're saying there are alternative options there are alternative options because that's what we keep looking for right

incrementality right so we are the thing is Google and apple are crowded spaces and uh and there's a lot of Education that's required to uh for gaming companies to get a thing Beyond and BB does exactly that we basically educate we help and we help them promote their games Beyond Google and Facebook so which can actually help them write down their cost and help them achieve their uh media obors why do you think people haven't jumped on this as much I mean traditionally especially in the west we've got the very like two-lane strategy it's just Android it's just sort of iOS and and the Apple Store whereas if you go out to the mayor region the people use a lot more options number of different marketplaces then you've got the kind of web three stores that are people are looking at as well as another option do you think there's a reason people haven't tapped into what you're doing as much see firstly let's see where we are right it's 2023 uh the world is becoming smarter every day uh as I say right the future is smart the future is oems that's like Hardware is

the new software uh what that means is in 2015 and 16 there were there were a lot of these Hardware companies which were not smart they were producing Hardware but they were selling it as Hardware like for example uh their TVs were not smart the phones were not smart you know uh your watches were not smart uh today everything is getting smarter so what's happening is these uh Hardware companies are actually becoming software companies now and uh today there's lack of information around this uh this vertical but this vertical is software within the hardware companies is growing at a cago of about 36% and uh you would see that uh a large proportion of their revenue in the next qu to 6 years is going to come from monetizing their softwares across every Hardware that they're selling and we're actually here we're innovating in that space we are uh driving outcomes efficiently in that space and it's it's just

about Brands kind of knowing that testing it out and kind of learning from those experiences and kind of finding more Avenues to promote themselves what's the most common question that you get asked by people approaching you saying we're interested in you know trying this angle that you guys are offering so what do we do like what's the what's the most common question you get asked by the Comm question I get is I didn't even know this existed so I mean that's where the industry stands today they are I mean everyone does Google and Facebook but what how do we get beyond that is is the big question and we are the ordinate solution but it's all about educating these Brands about okay there is there are ways of reaching these consumers beyond the big Tech platforms and I think that's the main question I think it's it's education right like also if a brand finds out okay fine this is the way to kind of go about it then uh I mean they require technical expertise and you know they need support uh they need uh help from companies to kind of help them achieve that scale and uh we are currently achieving exactly that

objective for gaming the BOS or any kind of Brands out there we've been talking to people over the past year or so about the recent uptick in that we call generative AI as opposed to standard AI there's been machine learning for you know years and years and years but the word we keep hearing from everybody whether it's developers of games or software or whatever it might be is kind of inevitable it's going to be a part of the workflow inevitably absolutely do you feel that's the abely agree we as humans uh the thing is data processing is a complex task right and uh we as humans are pretty certain that we can't process that volumes of data at scale that a machine can and we're good at taking decisions and that's what AI is going to help us do kind of approve or reject and what's going to happen in the future is the way I foresee it today are to kind of get access to a user we are with the help of our human capacity we can manage maybe two or three platforms at scale but with AI we will be able to manage about maybe 100 platforms at scale and uh and which will help us

drive efficiency in every form like it will drive efficiency in in our purchases it will drive efficiency in media acquisition it will drive it will help us it make our life easier I would I would suggest so I mean it's inevitable what's the number one thing you'd recommend a i software manufacturer or the hardware folks do to maximize their potential with you know U UA user acquisition what's the one thing PC people that doing it and they should be all right so one thing that brands are not doing I mean game developers are not doing is exploring um app stores beyond the Play store okay so like for example when when when I when anyone produces a game or could be any brand or any service their first focus is okay I got to register myself on Play Store I got to register myself on Apple App Store but they are more than 50 plus app stores out there where you can get access to Consumers consumers at a at a much uh in a much

efficient way so I mean G developers are not thinking that direction I believe I think they're not looking at the scale that they could achieve by kind of having their games kind of spread across every ab store out there so I think that's the missing piece there and I'm sure game developers will find scale once they kind of start testing those Waters out what about trends for the rest of the year we're near the beginning of 2024 what are your plans for the rest of the year moving to the next one is it just expanding connect with all people do you have initiatives you're rolling out what's the cloud I me see this industry is new we are we are helping Hardware manufacturers generate Revenue through theb of software and currently it's it's small I would say it's it would it will be about 1 to 5% of the overall Revenue uh but I mean in the coming years as I said the future is smart the future is OEM the future is Hardware so for us we're going to be building a lot

of Technology sitting on top of these Hardware manufacturers and uh basically have gaming Studios drive more efficient outcomes which is pretty much what everyone is looking for yeah we all we all striving towards that and obviously Ai and ml subjects we're going to keep working on you know it's it's a never ending build it's not like we're going to start building on a today and going to stop tomorrow you know it's it's always going to get better and better so we're constantly constantly working on making light easier for our partners good to hear the landscape never stops shifting and nether crean we so thank you ever so much talk to you today bahara I look forward to seeing what happens with teacher with me thank you so much and uh thank you for having us here pleasure [Music]