BuzzCity grows in the low-end mobile ad market with new funding

BuzzCity, a Singapore-based mobile advertising company, has picked up an additional $10 million for its combination approach of an ad network and social site, myGamma.com

The company is aiming to expand in the United States, but chances are, you’re not in its target market. Its idea is to reach out to audiences everywhere that are on a similar economic level. In India and Indonesia, the countries with the most BuzzCity users, that means the growing middle class. For a developed country like the US, that means all the users without iPhones, BlackBerries and all-you-can eat data plans.

Still, it’s positioning itself as a competitor to AdMob, the mobile ad network that has been going gangbusters worldwide, but especially in the US. Back in May when we first wrote about BuzzCity, AdMob had a daunting lead at home, with 1.5 billion impressions served per month in the US, while BuzzCity looked like it was ahead abroad. Today, AdMob is ahead with 4.6 billion impressions a month globally, while BuzzCity is reporting 1.7 billion, most from overseas.

Expanding myGamma is also a focus for the company, which has about 2.7 million registered (but not necessarily active) users on the social network. It features chat, groups, games and blogs (a horrible thing, by the way, when done from a mobile phone). There’s also an online store for users to purchase media or gifts for other users.

The $10 million funding came from Naspers, a South African media company.

Update: BuzzCity has given us their latest impression counts by country, and they’re up significantly from May. Here they are:

Indonesia : 1.21 billion (85%)
India : 669 million (16%)
South Africa : 578 million (36%)
USA : 190 million (45%)
Kenya : 156 million (99%)
Tanzania : 88 million (53%)
Bangladesh : 78 million (47%)
Romania : 71 million (26%)
Brunei : 63 million (80%)
Philippines : 55 million (86%)