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Small Business Profile of the Week posted on Thursday, 16 October 2008

There are many players in the technology field and some of the best and brightest are right here in San Diego. But most or all of them will tell you that staying one step ahead of the competition is the key to success.

eMbience CEO, Nimish Shrivastava

By Dave Thomas

One example is eMbience, a leading mobile media and technology company, based in the U.S. and India. Founded in 2001, eMbience has offices in San Diego (12 employees) and Bangalore, India (45 employees, including an off-shore R&D group).

The company delivers a comprehensive VAS solution for wireless operators, media brands and device manufacturers. eMbience's solutions include: Branded rich media entertainment, LBS, social networking, and real-time information applications, Turnkey music portal solution, Turn-key value added services platform for all content management, delivery and fulfillment, with mobile storefront and on-device portal across all mobile phone devices.

According to CEO Nimish Shrivastava, the company's ad supported mobile music portal platform provides for a turnkey music solution for full-track music, ringtones, ringback tones (RBT) and any other media management and fulfillment. "The system is capable of playing and managing rich media content either downloaded over the air or side loaded on mobile phone," Shrivastava said. "It is one of the first rental mobile music services whereby users can play, rewind and file as many songs as their devices can hold for the length of time they pay for the service. Downloaded full-track stereo songs can be stored for the subscriber on a carrier-based web server for delivery on-demand. Songs purchased on-demand will be immediately downloaded over-the-air. In essence, a one-stop mobile music shop."

The company got its start seven years ago behind the efforts of Nimish and Praful Shrivastava. Nimish saw an opportunity in mobile wireless services and with Qualcomm leading the charge; he sold his company in India and started eMbience across the street from Qualcomm headquarters. "We met with some people at Qualcomm who were reponsible for launching BREW and showed what we could do with their platform," Shrivastava remarked. "They were impressed and gave us the first leads in the business."

With any business, staying out in front of changes is important. According to Shrivastava, mobile devices are getting smarter and consumers have higher expectations for content accessibility.

"In many countries, mobile usage outpaces computers and matches TV consumption," Shrivastava said. "As it grows in size, the market is also becoming more sophisticated. Carriers have managed different service offerings in a silo category system, which is cumbersome to navigate, severely limiting revenue opportunities. They now want to bundle content and deliver a richer interactive consumer experience." As Shrivastava sees it, that is where mobile On-Device Portals (ODPs) come in. ODPs surpass mobile browsers in terms of usability, merchandising, and mobile device integration. Mobile operators, large media companies and device manufacturers looking to maximize their revenue and differentiate their services via cutting edge technology and content have launched ODPs.

Shrivastava goes on to note that downloadable applications have been around for a while, but recent improvements in the devices (e.g., the iPhone and Android phones) are propelling this segment to the forefront.

"Recognizing the high revenue potential in mobile music, in particular, carriers want to integrate their music offerings into one portal," Shrivastava said. "Mobile advertising, too, promises to drive content usage by removing price-barriers to adoption. Ad-supported mobile music will not only provide a nice boost, it will also see the biggest leap in growth."

Shrivastava noted that the mobile industry is a fast-paced and highly competitive industry.

"Operators, device manufacturers and consumers are looking for innovation and new services with new type of devices being launched every month," Shrivastava commented. "This is a problem for many companies that want to bring their ideas, content into the mobile forefront. This problem is what eMbience solves via our technology platform. Our proprietary cross-phones/platforms mobile multimedia player sets us apart from our competition."

As Shrivastava sees it, the eMbience team brings a deep technology and product expertise in building software products for the mobile industry. With commercial implementations of its platform through top carriers in the U.S. and emerging markets such as India, Mexico and Thailand, eMbience is poised to capture the growing global VAS market.

"Our plan is to expand use of our platform and mobile player across devices by opertors, brands and device manufcaturers around the world, especially in the emerging markets," Shrivastava said. "Our years of experience successfully navigating through the ever-changing mobile environment are based on staying one step ahead of what today's discerning mobile customer expects."

Watch the video featuring eMbience CEO, Nimish Shrivastavato to see their latest application.

eMbience Inc.
6450 Lusk Blvd. Suite E-203
San Diego, CA 92121
858-366-0415 ext. 201
www.embience.com

Posted by bizSanDiego: San Diego Business News