Neptune, led by Chief Executive Kang Yul-bin, said on Monday it will expand its adtech business this year as a new business, with a focus on the Indian market.

Neptune said it has held in-depth discussions for about six months on business direction that could maximise synergies between the two companies since it was acquired by Krafton in April last year. It said that, based on its adtech capabilities, it will pursue three new initiatives to strengthen business models linking adtech and games through cooperation between the two companies.

Neptune's three new initiatives are global expansion of its adtech business, expansion of its hybrid casual game business, and building a new DSP (Demand Side Platform, advertiser platform).

The global expansion of its adtech business will focus on targeting India. It said it completed development of an SDK optimised for India's mobile environment and built infrastructure to handle large-scale traffic in the third quarter, and plans to roll it out sequentially starting with popular mobile games for India in the first half of this year.

It also plans to secure a steady pipeline of successful titles and user traffic through active investment and publishing, as well as in-house development, for hybrid casual mobile games that combine an in-app advertising revenue model with in-app purchase revenue models. Hybrid casual mobile games are a genre that combines growth elements with simple controls and quick accessibility, and have shown rapid growth in the global market over the past 2 to 3 years.

Kang said the company plans to make a smooth entry into the Indian adtech market, which is growing to about 3 trillion won in size, by using its parent company's traffic in India, and will expand its adtech business in India in stages.