From its humble beginnings as a five-person operation above a Perth hairdresser just a few short years ago, Moko has come a long way.

Photo credit; Richard Patterson on Flickr

And it is now set to try and crack the United States college market with its mobile social media advertising platform, plus a $US1 billion capitalisation on the world’s biggest technology stock exchange.

Next month, the Western Australia company will launch a service to connect advertisers with 5 million American college students, the ready-made audience that gave Facebook its start.

Although this means it will be competing with Google and Facebook for a portion of the $US7.65 billion ($A8.5 billion) US mobile advertising market, this is the first stage of a plan to list on Nasdaq, according to chief executive officer and founder Ian Rodwell.

Its first major deal with the American Collegiate Intramural Sports (AMIS) association gives it an initial audience of 5 million university students (out of 21.6 million) at 200 colleges across the country.

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