Dhingana, ‘India’s Spotify’, introduces ads, snags key Facebook exec as an advisor

Indian music specialist Dhingana, often referred to as ‘India’s Spotify’, has upped its efforts to monetise its 11 million-strong userbase after it announced the introduction of an advertising platform on its service.

First started in 2007 by US-based twin brothers Snehal and Swapnil Shinde, Dhingana has rolled out an “immersive advertising platform” to give brands and companies an opportunity to reach fans of Indian music in the country and the world over.

The company believes that Dhingana adverts will be particularly appealing for entertainment brands — such as movie studios, music labels — as well as mobile operators and other firms seeking to reach Internet savvy Indians.

Speaking to TNW earlier this year, Snehal said that the service’s business model would include advertising, which will complement the existing revenue from user subscriptions. Ads can be served using a range of different variables, including geo-targeting, as well as more specific user-based metrics, he explained.

Commenting on the launch of the ad platform, CEO Snehal said:

Globally, over 11 million Indian music fans listen to their favourite music on Dhingana. We believe that this is a great motivation for brands looking at innovative avenues to reach out to them. This led us to develop a highly intuitive advertising platform.

That’s not all, however, and Dhingana has bagged a huge name in the Web advertising space after Gokul Rajaram, Facebook’s product director for advertising, joined its advisory board.

Former Google executive Rajaram is highly rated, and is a figure who is key to Facebook’s monetisation push. His involvement is a major coup and unsurprisingly the Shinde brothers are “thrilled” to have him on board.

“Gokul has extensive experience in creating user-friendly and highly profitable experiences for social and mobile platforms. His experience will be invaluable as we expand the service to reach more users,” COO Swapnil says.

Rajaram himself paid tribute to Dhingana’s progress, saying that the company has “been quick in tapping the huge impact that mobile is making in India.”

Dhingana was one of a number of services that saw a huge boost in usage after joining Facebook’s open graph initiative. The company hit a then-record 10.5 million users in April, which it said made it the biggest legal streaming site in India.

Image via Flickr / Jamesclay