Adways’ first global push stalled. Its second one is catching fire.

Nobuyoshi Noda, head of global business for Adways, at the company’s new office

Building a global business from Japan is a dicey business. The linguistic, cultural, and enterprise barriers have stymied many Japanese firms, large and small. Adways, a leading ad network, media agency, and app developer, learned this lesson in 2003. The company had expanded to China but was unable to quickly move into other markets. Only after waiting eight years was Adways ready to make its mark on a global scale.

The company’s international strategy, executed by Nobuyoshi Noda, member of the board and head of global business, was fast and furious. Adways entered nine new markets in just two-and-a-half years. Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines in 2011 were followed by Thailand, Taiwan, India, Korea, and the United States in 2012.

Noda attributes the delay to the company’s need to take a step back before moving forward. The China expansion happened a scant two years after the company launched in Japan. Though the China branch started auspiciously, ramping up from a development center in 2003 to a full business unit hiring local college graduates by 2005, the health of Adways as a whole could not sustain further expansion. According to Noda, in those days, the first priority was digging the firm out of a deficit.

That task proved easier said than done. Adways had positive operating income following its IPO in 2006 but started to wobble in 2007, posting negative operating income in the third and fourth quarters of that fiscal year. The firm fought through a difficult 2008 and a net income loss of JPY 495 million (US$4.75 million) before reversing its fortunes and posting a positive net income of JPY 406 million (US$3.89 million)in 2010. The upward trend continued the following year – net income of JPY 469 million (US$4.5 million) – and led to a renewed commitment towards globalization. “We decided to wait for the right time – but when it came we went for it entirely,” Noda says.

The company entices users by promising to spike their applications up app ranking charts. Having secured contracts from major app developers like GungHo, King, and SquareEnix, Adways can point to a strong track record when trying to close deals. In Japan, 15 of the top 30 apps are all clients of Adways, and the company says similar patterns are beginning to emerge around Asia.

When asked how his service has been successfully beating back local alternatives, Noda’s response is concise, “It’s difficult for local companies to have the global contacts we have.” Adways counts Line, Twitter, and Facebook among its media partners and has tracking and measuring tools to help measure advertising effectiveness within those applications.

Given the strides the company has made in Asia, expectations are high for Adways to break out even farther. Noda acknowledges that the company does not want to be limited to Asia. He also points out that Asia is the leading app market in the world. “It is more our priority that we can become the strongest company in Asia,” he says.

His first goal on that road? Growing international revenue from last year’s U$30 million to US$100 million by 2016.

See: How the founder of Adways, a high-school dropout, became a multi-millionaire

The post Adways’ first global push stalled. Its second one is catching fire. appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Adways’ first global push stalled. Its second one is catching fire.