NetworkPlay appoints Harmeet Singh Arora as VP; creates dedicated Linkedin sales team

Arora will look after ad sales for web, DTH and mobile platforms, while the ad sales business for Linkedin.com will be headed by Sunil Punjabi

NetworkPlay.in, an online advertising network funded by Capital18 and Goosefish Media Ventures, has appointed Harmeet Singh Arora as vice-president, network sales. He will report to Rammohan Sundaram, founder, chief executive officer and managing director, NetworkPlay.in.

Arora was earlier the head of media sales at Webaroo Technology, the company which owns the Web and mobile group messaging service, SMSGupshup.com.

Arora's appointment comes at a time when the company is venturing into the mobile ad sales business.

Arora has more than 15 years of work experience across Web, online gaming and mobile. Prior to Webaroo, he was the head of ad sales at InMobi (previously mKhoj), a mobile ad network company. Arora has also worked with companies such as Zapak.com and Rediff.com, where he was director, corporate business development.

Apart from hiring Arora, Networkplay has decided to divide its sales teams into two groups. A dedicated sales team, headed by Sunil Punjabi, co-founder and vice-president, sales, has been created to look after the monetisation or handle the ad sales business of Linkedin.com, the US-based business networking site. NetworkPlay is the exclusive ad sales partner for Linkedin.com in India.

The other team will look after the ad sales businesses for all other clients in the Web, DTH and mobile space. Speaking to afaqs!, Arora says, "I will be national head of the Web, DTH and mobile ad sales team." Earlier, a single ad sales team handled all the clients.

Notably, the announcement about creating a dedicated sales team for Linkedin.com has come after the visit of Dipchand Nishar, vice-president (products) Linkedin.com, who visited India in September.

On the creation of a dedicated sales team for Linkedin, Sundaram says, "We want to enhance our focus and ramp up our ad sales initiatives for Linkedin.com."

Globally, Linkedin.com has a user base of 48 million, of which more than 2.5 million users are based in India.

NetworkPlay has recently ventured into ad sales in the DTH space. It has already bagged the ad sales duties of the interactive channel of Airtel Digital TV.