1World picks up Brand Capital Investment

SAN JOSE, Calif. and MUMBAI, India, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- 1World Online and Brand Capital, the strategic investment arm of Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, commonly known as The Times Group, announced a strategic investment of US $4.9M into 1World Online, the industry leading shared Intelligence platform based out of San Jose, California USA. The investment will be used to drive traffic to showcase 1World's online tools in the Indian market, which is expected to be one of the largest digital online markets by the end of 2018, second only to China.

1World polls, quizzes, and other monetizable Interactive Media Units (IMU) are currently deployed on The Economic Times (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com) and Huffington Post in India (http://www.huffingtonpost.in), with IMU deployment on many more Times Group properties coming soon. 1World will use the investment to expand the reach of 1World online and provide a platform to digital publishers & brands in India to offer live online polls and quizzes, using the 1World tools to thereby increase monetizable traffic to the digital properties. These noteworthy daily results allow for a powerful and cyclical content-generation system known as "News About the News."

To support 1World activities in India, 1World has set up a team in India launching India's Knowledge Hub, at 1worldonline.in. India's Knowledge Hub aggregates the insights gathered from the various online websites within the 1World family of websites, providing a valuable venue for Indians— living in India and abroad—to learn What Do People Really Think™.

"We are really excited to partner with 1World, and we value this partnership as Brand Capital expands its presence globally with an objective of assisting more global companies to launch in India using the Brand Capital solution," said Mr. Sivakumar Sundaram, CEO, Brand Capital. "The key benefits of this corporate relationship will be better insights for our readers, better understanding of our audience, and increased engagement leading to better ad monetization. One of the things we really found impressive with the 1World platform was its support of 30 languages, including eight India languages."

"India has become the crown jewel in our international strategy," said Alex Fedosseev, CEO of 1World Online. "As our namesake hints, our plan has always been to create and nurture an international network of publisher partners. Working with The Times Group means we have the best foothold in the India market one could hope for— I feel confident the early success we've had in India so far will blossom as we expand in India."

About Brand Capital

Brand Capital is a strategic investment division of the Times Group that works with the entrepreneur eco- system. The Company's branding expertise and intellectual capital helps entrepreneurs with the intricacies of the advertising business, to plan and build effective corporate branding strategies that lead to growth and enterprise value creation. The innovative idea was to leverage the brand building power of the Times Group's advertising properties to build value for emerging start-ups and high growth companies. While companies can acquire funding for growth and working capital, brand building investments rarely attract interest from the funding community. This is especially true for brands which are new category creators – because the brand investment in such cases needs to be large and sustainable, compared to the hard asset investments. Brand Capital now partners with more than 650 investee companies across sectors as wide as Retail, FMCG, Consumer Durables, Realty, Digital and Mobile, Financial & Consumer Services and several more. Since the inception of this business a decade ago, the Company has helped build several iconic brands in India and its invested value today is close to $3.0 billion.

About 1World Online

1World Online has developed and maintains a Consumer Intelligence Platform providing simple but effective engagement applications, unique-engaging content, ongoing market research, and insightful end- user analytics for customers who tap into the Platform. 1World is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has offices in San Jose, CA, Boston, MA, India, Mexico, Europe, Japan, Ukraine, Singapore, and soon China. News About the News, India's Knowledge Hub, and What Do People Really Think are all trademarks of 1World Online, Inc.  Please visit us at www.1Worldonline.com or contact us at [email protected].

SOURCE 1World Online, Inc