Alibaba launches Indonesian mobile advertising platform: UC Ads

Alibaba Mobile Business Group has launched its mobile advertising platform, UC Ads, in Indonesia.

UC Ads promises to help Indonesian brands improve the exposure and reputation of their products as well as helping with sale promotion and customer acquisition. Currently, UC Ads already has offices in India and China.

The platform makes use of insight from mobile customers to give its partners the opportunity to target adverts. Alibaba has said clients of UC Ads will be able to connect with internet users on a worldwide scale. It will use big data analysis to track potential customers.

The platform provides content marketing for companies, large and small, and is powered by Chinese mobile internet company, UC Web, which Alibaba acquired in 2014.

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According to the Jakarta Post, Kenny Ye, General Manager of Alibaba overseas, stated: “UC Ads is designed to analyse big data to find out potential consumers for advertisers, then deliver ads to the target audience.” Ye hopes to offer SME’s “cost-effective mobile marketing to grow their businesses which will also contribute to the growth of the nation’s economy.”

Alibaba has cited information about the growing market in Indonesia for mobile advertising, such as eMarketer’s March data which predicts the number of mobile phone users in India will continue its rapid growth. eMarketer expects the number to rise by 7.4% to a total of 173.3mn mobile users by the end of 2017, of which 67.1mn will use smartphones.

In 2016, the Co-operatives and Small-Medium Enterprises Ministry published data showing there were just under 60mn SMEs in Indonesia.

Of the potential for market growth, Ye said: “Indonesia has a large population and advertising marketing in this country has strong potential for growth. With an intelligent content marketing solution, UC Ads can help businesses in Indonesia to improve brand exposure, app download, product reputation, sales promotion and customer acquisition.”

UC Ads’ Indonesian platform will mainly focus on the areas of education, finance, FMCG (Fast-moving Consumer Goods), e-commerce, gaming, tourism, entertainment and IT.