We want to provide a unified media experience across screens: Soujanya Bhumkar, CEO, Cooliris

The sweat streaming down his brow can't wipe the warm smile on his face. It is a sultry Delhi afternoon, but Soujanya Bhumkar is a picture of calm as he readily cooperates with Business Today's extended photo shoot.

Each time we pass a roadside temple, or a forgotten idol in the corner of a park, Bhumkar pauses to bow or touch the ground in respect. For one who has spent almost two decades in Silicon Valley, setting up more than one successful startup, this 40-year-old from Mumbai is more Indian than most of us.

While his name might not ring a bell, almost everyone who has ever used an Android phone or tablet has used his product. Bhumkar is the CEO and co-founder of Cooliris, which gives the three-dimensional effect to the gallery on Android phones. But some of us also know Cooliris as a browser extension that made searching images easier and fun much before Google. Its 3D wall concept was way ahead of its time, and a good reason why Google wanted to incorporate it when it was making an operating system of their own.

"The idea was not mine. It started with something called Cool Previews, which was an idea that came from Mayank Mehta, the brother of one of my classmates in the University of Chicago," says Bhumkar. Cool Previews, which is still available as a Firefox extension, gives previews of links without opening the pages. "Soon, Austin Shoemaker came on board and suggested we should do this for media. That is how PicLens came into existence. We worked on it to solve the problem of media discovery and that is how the Cooliris plug-in came about in mid-2008. Sometime later Google approached us and said they liked what we were doing on the desktop and wanted to incorporate it in the Nexus 1," he says. The company, which now has 18 employees, was valued at $80 million* during Series C funding.

The app now has over 50 million installs in the US with 43 million monthly active users. Worldwide this number is over 100 million. "That helped us move from being a desktop centric company to a mobile focus." Now, Cooliris is also a very popular cross-platform media app on its own, collating photos from across sources like Picasa and Flickr. It will soon be available on television too through Google Chromecast plug-in.

"We wanted to provide a unified experience across screens for 'my media', by which I mean all media relevant to me. This media is fragmented across many sources which you tend to accumulate over time. We did not want to create another service and instead created a one-stop app to link these services," says Bhumkar. The Cooliris app adds the ability to collaborate and converse about this media and then selectively share it.

Later this year the app will add premium features. "How we implement the in-app purchase differently in different markets. So our business partners have the options of pre-paying us and making it free for their users," he adds. In a forthcoming version, users will be able to organise media across sources in new ways, not just time.

So why isn't a cool app like Cooliris the default interface for all services that have media? "Our model was never B2B. We wanted to be consumer centric. So we did not go into the business of consumer UI. Plus, the idea would have become stale soon after," says Bhumkar. The company also decided to focus on its consumer goals and hived off its highly-monetised 3D mobile ad business AdJItsu to Singtel. Cooliris has other B2B partnerships where it has featured partners, but Bhumkar wants to shift to a B2C model with launch of subscription-based premium features.

Bhumkar, who comes to India often, says Android and iOS have created new business opportunities across the world. "They have reduced the barrier to be able to create something that is game changing. So it is time we understood the value of the app business. We have to think mobile-first, especially in India," says Bhumkar. But, he says, the business models are very challenging in India, as "everyone wants everything free here".

How come we don't have apps from India that are popular in China? "I am optimistic a global app will happen. But it requires thinking about a consumer brand and global reach. It also needs someone who can understand that you need multi-country presence," he says about the chances of a truly global app out of India. "There is a mindset issue. We don't think of a digital global consumer brand for some reason. Maybe the starting point for that is outside India and requires a long-term approach. The key is to understand the opportunity about the app economy. It is about owning the consumer engagement and monetising it."

(*An earlier version of this story had the word million missing in the company's valuation. It has now been corrected)