SAN FRANCISCO (TIP): In 1999, Infosys brought global attention to Indian IT when it listed on the Nasdaq. It was then software services. Sixteen years later, an Indian software product company, InMobi, has created a similar moment. The Bengaluru-based advertising technology company literally took its battle to its biggest competitors, Facebook and Google. In a prime San Francisco venue overlooking the magnificent Golden Gate bridge and with over 500 people in attendance, including high-profile Silicon Valley investors, entrepreneurs and academicians, InMobi launched a major new product that carries the potential to disrupt mobile advertising as we know it today.

InMobi co-founder Naveen Tewari described the new platform, called Miip, as revolutionary. Only time will tell how accurate the description is. But the basic premise of the platform lies in one that is increasingly acknowledged as true: Consumers dislike ads, mainly because ads are pushed on them, with no concern about relevance. It becomes worse in mobile phones -the device that’s fast becoming the primary content viewing format -because the ads become particularly intrusive on the small screen.