Mobile advertising and marketing firm Blyk has struck its first deal outside of Europe, launching operations in India with Aircel.

In India Blyk will target the 16-29 year old demographic, which will be sent content by way of messages, both SMS and MMS, across categories they sign up to such as entertainment, sports, lifestyle, dating and careers advice. As users respond to the content over a period of six to eight weeks, they are then sent more content from their areas of interest, which tailors the marketing to the user.

Aircel has a subscriber base of over 48 million and India has the largest youth market in the world, with over half of the population comprising of young people, a feature which makes the market ripe for mobile advertising.

Gurdeep Singh, chief operating officer at Aircel said: “Today the youth comprises over 51 per cent of the total population in India and a large percentage of the youth are using the mobile which then becomes a very powerful medium to interact, engage, entertain and connect with the youth lending them our ears to voice their areas of interest, preferences and views.”

The launch comes just weeks after Blyk opened an Asia Pacific office in Singapore.