G&R embarked on its journey in 2009 with a portal called ‘Goromcha,’ which encompassed classified news, events and many other facets.
Initiating their vision with two founders and a team of twenty two, Green and Red Technologies Limited (G&R) is the first and largest ad network in Bangladesh. G&R embarked on its journey in 2009 with a portal called ‘Goromcha,’ which encompassed classified news, events and many other facets. “When we first started out, we knew we wanted to build an internet based company. However, we weren’t entirely sure about what it would be” recalls Muhammad Nazimuddaula, Co-Founder and CEO of G&R. “With Goromcha, we realized that a significant challenge is how to monetize a website, and to do that, the idea of an ad network first came to our minds” This allowed for the emergence of the ad network in August 2011.
Today, G&R is the local Digital Advertising Network in Bangladesh with over 4000+ local websites and apps within its network. Through this robust system, a brand/company can reach up to 20 million Bangladeshis who browse the internet from both their desktops and mobiles every day. G&R also helps them build new online marketing channels that can impact their business in more measurable and innovative ways than the traditional media channels. G&R’s mission is to make the internet work for Bangladesh. Because of the rapid growth of the relevant sector, recently, G&R has also introduced local mobile ad platforms which enable advertisers, ad agencies and other online media buyers to acquire quality local mobile traffic.
G&R consists of two departments – Product and Business. The Product Department has two sub-departments which are Engineering and Design. They work on the core ad network development. Also, the Design Department caters to publishers and advertisers who may require any creative service. The Business Department is made up of a Publisher team that maintains the publisher’s relationships and Sales Team that is in charge of bringing new markets and maintaining liaisons with advertisers.
“Since its inception, G&R has assisted local publishers to monetize better their websites and apps and advertisers to enhance their online reach. Our Publisher team regularly works with local website and app owners to earn revenue from their web and mobile inventory,” said Ayub Shahrear, Head of Partnerships at G&R.
“The first challenge we faced was to educate the publishers and advertisers about ad networks,” said Rezaur Rahman, Chief Product Officer of G&R, “The other challenge was to develop our product, and we had to invest a lot on local Engineers who didn’t have sound knowledge on the concept.” It was a challenge that G&R overcame, paving the way for others to enter the market. However, G&R has maintained their top position. Lutfi Chowdhury, Vice President, Sales & Partnership of G&R, informs that they have some unique features that are of international standards, an attribute that distinguishes them from their competitors. He stated, “G&R is currently the number one ad network in Bangladesh, and we are bigger than Google in the local inventory.”
It was in February 2015 that G&R was acquired by the UK based leading ICT Company GenEx Infosys Ltd. When asked about how the acquisition has altered the functionality and management of the company, CEO, Nazimuddaula said that much of the changes that were brought about were positive. The team mostly remained the same while there were certain aspects regarding accountability and management, which has become more streamlined. He further postulated, “There is also a common problem with cash flow that most businesses face in Bangladesh. There was an imbalance between what we’re getting from selling to the advertisers and how much we were paying to the publishers. We’ve sorted that out and now we even have the costs for house campaigns and promotions covered.”
G&R currently has a platform to serve 20 million impressions per day & 600 million impressions per month through a network of 4000+ local websites and mobile apps. Their current advertiser portfolio includes major telecommunications groups, FMCGs, financial service providers, e-commerce firms, international airlines, small and medium enterprises and so on. These numbers are growing with the continuous success of the company.
The founders have lofty expectations in the coming years, the first being that by 2016, they are projected to serve over 2 billion impressions. The company will concentrate more on those who want to campaign with a small budget and eventually turn G&R into a household name.
G&R have also started a new partnership with Future Startup. The initiative has been dubbed “Promoting Bangladesh 2016”. The partnership was formed to encourage quality local websites and mobile apps grow further and make profits. In turn, more local jobs are created, more money stays in Bangladesh, and local internet users can find quality services that apply to their lives.
