Tell us about yourself and your stint at KPT.
I am heading the global operations of KeyPoint Technologies (KPT) as the CEO and leading the company through various phases of innovation and disruption that will redefine human device communication through linguistic science, machine learning and data analytics. I have been with the firm since 2012 and my vision is to take search and discovery on mobile devices to the next level.
Prior to joining KPT, I was the Country Head – India for Adaptive Mobile. I have also worked with Nuance Communications as the Head of Marketing and Business Development for APAC region.
I have over 20 years of experience in Marketing, International Business Development, Product Management and Sales in competitive telecom markets in Asia, Europe and MEA region. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli.
What is unique about KPT that drew your attention to work with the company?
KPT is an award-winning global linguistics innovator enabling intelligent human communication beyond mobile devices. The company is passionate about combining linguistics and technology to deliver better user experience across all types of connected devices.
KPT believes in the amalgamation of best minds in the industry who collectively work towards realizing the company’s vision. As IoT is bringing forth numerous devices to be connected, we are geared up to enable intelligent communication for all these devices. My confidence in the future of the organization is buttressed by KPT’s highly-skilled, passionate and young workforce engaged in developing cutting-edge mobile solutions that will redefine the mobile device landscape.
What are the various product offerings of KPT?
KPT enables intelligent human communication across connected devices. Some of our key products are as follows:
Adaptxt: An award-winning, smart, multilingual, predictive text application for iOS, Android and Amazon Fire devices. Adaptxt offers a fast, error-free and personalized input (typing) experience with region-based suggestions to create a unique contextual experience. It delivers enhanced input experience through word prediction, language suggestions, etc for mobile devices.
With Adaptxt, users can access more than 90+ languages and 44 specialized dictionaries in professional and personal fields of interest including medicine, finance, IT, law, business, popular sports, movies, seasonal themes and more. Users of all kinds can enjoy the personalized, localized content and suggestions offered by Adaptxt. Adaptxt has more than 1.8 million downloads till date. It is shipped on 50 million devices globally.
Xploree: (Our latest offering for the Indian market) is industry’s first search & discovery platform that connects mobile users to the most relevant brands and services across search, messenger and other platforms without exiting the current conversation app. Leveraging KPT’s expertise in multi-lingual capabilities, Xploree which is now available in English for Android device users, will support nearly 140 languages (global and Indic) by December 2015.
Completing an entire cycle of innovation, Xploree has emerged as the only intelligent, user-initiated and hyper-contextual Search & Discovery platform in the mobile eco-system. It predicts user needs during chat conversations and guides them through their mobile journey across apps through relevant content, deals and services discovery.
Lipi: It is India’s first Indic keyboard for Android devices. Lipi supports 25 major Indic languages and 11 transliterated languages like Hinglish, Marathinglish, Punglish, Banglish, etc which empowers local audience to communicate in their preferred dialect.
You mentioned Xploree is India’s first Search & Discover platform that can predict and connect mobile users to relevant
brands & services in one tap across apps. Could you please elaborate on this?
Yes, Xploree which is our latest offering for the Indian market is the country’s first Search & Discovery platform that can predict and connect mobile users to relevant brands & services in one tap across apps.
With Xploree, mobile phone users, without exiting the current conversation app, can instantly explore options for movies, fine dining, shopping, etc. Brands through Xploree can connect with users in real-time to provide relevant services such as discount coupons, deals, one-hop search and add greater value to the conversation, thus taking consumer engagement from a contextual to a hyper-contextual realm.
Leveraging KPT’s expertise in multi-lingual capabilities, Xploree which is now available in English for Android device users, will support nearly 140 languages (global and Indic) by December 2015.
How does Xploree business model work? Where does the revenue come from?
Xploree is a free Search & Discovery app on Google Playstore for India market that connects mobile device users to the most relevant brands and services during their conversations in one tap across apps. It offers brands the opportunity to delight and engage consumers through targeted deals, offers, coupons discovery across search, messenger and social platforms without making the user exit his chat app. Just to give a sense, the current industry average for user engagement rate with brands on mobile applications is only 1.62% as per emarketer report 2014. Xploree can deliver an engagement rate that is nearly ten times more than the industry average. Though it is early to talk about the monetization value, the potential of this platform is immense.
How has the Indian market responded to the launch of this app?
We have received highly positive feedback from our consumers as well as the media, so far. Till date Xploree has had 0.18 million downloads on Google’s Play Store. Being a recent entrant in the market, we have a long way to go but are confident that Xploree will make a difference in the Indian mobile service market and take search and discovery to the next level.
Do you plan to have a partnership program?
Yes, we do. Recently, we tied up with Groupon India, a leading daily-deals website to offer the customers exciting, value-for-money deals at the touch of their fingertips. Our aim is to enable people to instantly discover and avail fantastic deals, services and offers at unbeatable prices, and Xploree’s unique predict and connect technology does exactly that.
We are exploring more long-term partnerships with eco-system players in India to bring qualified value to consumers through targeted brands and services discovery.