Press releases – Finance
Continued acceleration in growth in Q1 2010: +38%
Published 2010-05-11
100% organic growth in all of the Group’s businesses – Publishing (B-t-C): +49.3% – Monetization services (B-to-B): +23.3% Successful, effective strategic positioning
Consistent with its financial calendar, the Rentabiliweb Group is today publishing its sales for the first quarter of 2010.
| In thousands of Euros | Q1 2010 | Q1 2009 | ∆% |
| Sales Q1 | 19,493 | 14,123 | +38% |
| incl. audience monetization for third parties (B-to-B) | 7,545 | 6,121 | +23.3% |
| incl. audience monetization for its own account | 11,947 | 8,002 | +49.3% |
“Despite a particularly difficult economic context, the first quarter of 2010 showed a very high level of exclusively organic growth for all of the Group’s businesses, a continuation of the performances achieved in the fourth quarter of 2009,” stated Jean-Baptiste Descroix-Vernier, Chairman of the Rentabiliweb Group. “These results are consistent with – and even slightly better than – our strategy and our forecasts. They confirm the success and effectiveness of our strategic positioning, which is based on a one-stop combination of monetization services and digital entertainment packages that generates loyalty and is profitable.”
The monetization services business (B-to-B: audience monetization for third parties) grew 23.3% to €7,545 K. The first quarter of the year was driven by the dynamism of performance-based solutions, namely e-mail and SMS loyalty solutions and cashback solutions, such as www.mailorama.fr and www.textorama.fr, with growth of more than 70% over the first three months of the year.
Alongside this, the company’s long-standing micropayment businesses showed double-digit growth, fueled by contracts with top-name companies (Libération, Marianne, Planète 51, ConcoursMania, France Télévision and others), whose effect on the volume of business will mount steadily throughout the year.
The Interactive Voice Services and Premium SMS businesses, which target off-line media looking to generate loyalty and communicate on a massive scale with their audiences, are constantly gaining momentum and their significant impact should be felt in the second quarter of 2010.
These performances for all of the B-to-B business confirm the trends shown in the fourth quarter of 2009 with sequential growth of nearly 7%, amidst a particularly dynamic final quarter of 2009. They also confirm the Group’s strategic positioning as a one-stop provider of monetization solutions for businesses seeking high performance in order to monetize their entire audience – in both the digital and non-digital spheres – in all of the media channels and platforms available.
| In thousands of Euros | Q1 2010 | Q4 2009 | ∆% |
| Sales | 19,493 | 19,083 | +2.1% |
| incl. audience monetization for third parties (B-to-B) | 7,545 | 7,060 | +6.9% |
| incl. audience monetization for its own account (B-to-C) | 11 947 | 12,023 | (0.6%) |
The digital content publishing business (B-to-C: audience monetization for its own account), boosted by the Dating and Family Games categories, showed overall growth of 49.3% to € 11,947 K, accounting for 61.3% of all business in the first quarter of 2010.
The building of a comprehensive package and a full range of entertainment sites, combined with constant control of traffic sources, spurred cross-sales between the various categories in the portfolio and helped increase per-customer revenue. Cross-selling between game sites, dating sites and adult sites was particularly effective and profitable. As expected, the publishing business showed a growth roughly equivalent to that in the fourth quarter of 2009; the basis for comparison was unfavorable given the exclusive special offers given to some partners for year-end programs and promotional drives.
In addition, the application for accreditation as a Payment Services Institution by the French Prudential Control Authority (ACP), which has now replaced the Committee of Credit Institutions and Investment Companies (CECEI) in supervising accreditation and verification procedures, is finalized. It should be examined at a coming Management Committee meeting, whose date has yet to be determined. To date, the ACP has not yet granted any accreditation for a Payment Services Institution in France since the changes made to the European Directive in November 2009. Once this accreditation has been obtained, Rentabiliweb will be able not only to manage its own payment transactions, but also offer this service and especially bankcard payment transactions to other publishers and e-merchants in France and abroad.