Mobile App City Guide MyCityWay, Ambitiously Aims at Asia

Exclusive – MyCityWay, the US-based mobile app city guide has a strong presence in U.S and Europe. Not so much in Asia though.

But things will be changing as Vignesh Rengasamy, the vice president of products and strategy at MyCityWay, tells us that they have intentions to expand in Asia. And it sounds like an ambitious plan too. So far, it has set off smoothly in India, attracting over 150,000 mobile app downloads within two months after the local launch.

However we learned today that its Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo city guide apps aren’t doing as well, having only a combined total of 70,000 (iOS) downloads across all three cities. I was told that MyCityWay will be setting up offices in Japan and China and will also introduce its Android and BlackBerryapps in these countries in order to reach out to more mobile users.

We presently operate only out of India and NYC. But we do plan to open up offices in China/Japan to cater to our expansion and to cover more cities in these regions.

Apart from the big nations in Asia, MyCityWay also has plans to enter Southeast Asia too. Rengasamy explained that the demographics and tech savviness of the people in the Southeast Asia region made it a very attractive place for expansion. See? I told you it was an ambitious plan! Asia is huge and diverse and I questioned whether MyCityWay has the resources to push its plan in Japan, China, India, and Southeast Asia simultaneously. Money shouldn’t be much of a problem as MyCityWay has received $6 million in funding to date.

Apart from investment money, it is also the official mobility service partners for BMWi– which I believe gives MyCityWay some form of steady revenue. Plus, MyCityWay also has strategic partners in each of the markets they operate in, to ensure their apps have distinct local flavor and content. It also helps to build the apps within a reasonable amount of time. Rengasamy explains:

Yes we do [have the resources], and we will also be expanding the team in India and NYC as required. We had expanded from one city – NYC – in early 2010 to almost 50 cities across the US and Europe by the end of 2010. So we believe expanding across Asia is quite doable.

So far India is MyCityWay’s only office in Asia with over 40 employees. But we can expect more offices to be set up across Asia with MyCityWay’s ambitious plan in this continent. Rengasamy told us that Japan and China will be first priority followed by Southeast Asia. “You can expect more updates on our Asian expansion in the coming months,” he adds.