To understand the real impact of COVID-19 on the mobile monetization market, we had the opporunity to interview several industry experts:
Alexis Bartelds, CEO at Sam Media
Chris Purdie, Commercial Director at PM Connect
Sherine Seif, Distribution & Account Director at Alchimie
Vincent Taradel, CMO at Digital Virgo
Lionel Ferri, CTO at Evina
Have you made any changes to your internal organization?
Alexis Bartelds: “We believe in true partnerships that accelerate joint success, so being in touch with everybody and meeting people in person is very important to us. We have adjusted quickly to the current situation and are making do with virtual meetings for now. We even have virtual staff events now like Friday drinks and online fitness sessions. We have offices in Malaysia, Vietnam, and The Netherlands, so we already took full advantage of communication technology to stay in touch.”
Chris Purdie: “At PM Connect, we pride ourselves on our adaptability and a flexible business style that stretches across four continents. Fortunately, we already had the infrastructure in place to allow an easy switch to working from home given the current issues. It is business as usual for our dedicated team, still on a mission to connect global brands to new audiences – with outreach to 70+ mobile carriers, processing over 6 million payments every month.”
Sherine Seif: “All teams were prepared to work from home and ensure the continuity of the activity. We motivate our teams thanks to a lot of virtual social activities to keep the spirit up”.
Lionel Ferri: “Evina is a remote-first company, therefore even in this current global context, the team is fully operational for all its customers and we support more than ever the digital monetization market.”
How is the current situation impacting your business?
Alexis Bartelds: “We can see an overall increase in traffic. Our verticals perform very well with people that spend time at home. People save time on commuting and have opportunities to watch video content or do some e-learning. We see overall growth.”
Chris Purdie: “In this climate, consumer habits are changing and we’ve seen an increase of 25 – 30% in sign-ups to some products, and 5 – 10% growth of users returning day after day. Much of this is for our fitness offering, as people look for the best ways to keep healthy at home. Audiences remain hungry for our sports products, despite fixtures being cancelled or postponed. Working with our brand and carrier partners, we’re adapting the content to suit this – with a host of non-live options including match replays and highlights packages. Our team are project managing these transitions effectively, delivering the same award-winning work, as the demand increases during lockdown.”
Sherine Seif: “From a business point of view, we notice an increase in the DCB market and a great appetite for consuming more video content during the lockdown period. We hang in and continue to be cooperative, welded and solid until it all passes. Stay safe”.
Vincent Taradel: “We have seen a strong increase in the usage of our services especially for Games and VOD and a much higher proportion of WIFI connections”
Lionel Ferri: “We provide an anti-fraud solution in SaaS mode whose use is in proportion to that of our customers. We are seeing a very significant increase in the number of transactions we are seeing on our anti-fraud platform. At the same time, we have seen fraudulent applications trying to develop using the keyword “Coronavirus”.
How are fraudsters taking advantage of the current crisis and becoming more active?
Alexis Bartelds: “We are mainly concerned that fraudsters will take advantage of people’s fear in the current crisis. We think it is tasteless and wrong to promote creatives regarding the current crisis, so we asked our traffic partners to stay away from it. We want users to trust our ads, so we strive to ensure ads are clear and provide the information that users need to make informed decisions. We don’t allow ads or destinations that deceive users by excluding relevant product information or providing misleading information about our products. No need to say we have a zero-tolerance policy for this type of fraud.”
Vincent Taradel: “Many telecom operators are focused on essential public service issues, they rely on trusted players to ensure the security of mobile transactions and to avoid image problems during this particularly critical period.”
Lionel Ferri: “It is in situations of great disorder that fraudsters are most active, you must remain vigilant and share any suspicion with your anti-fraud partner, in this period of high pressure the commitment of your solution provider will be key. At Evina, in this current global context, the team is fully operational for all its customers and we support more than ever the digital monetization market.”
Thank you to all our fantastic panelists for sharing their insights! We stand by your side to help you grow your business safely.
