Revue de presse
AFJV -Agence Française pour le jeu Vidéo
SponsorPay propose aux joueurs en ligne d'accéder gratuitement au contenu premium
Inside Facebook
SponsorPay Emerges from Stealth Mode, Building Virtual Currency Monetization Platform for Europe
Communiqué de presse
Berlin - August 4, 2010
SponsorPay And Smeet Boost Offer Revenues By 60% With In-World Integration; 21% Of Users Convert From Offers To Direct Payments
SponsorPay, Europe’s leading monetization platform, has boosted offer revenues for 3D virtual world Smeet by 60% through effective in-game positioning. Additionally, 21% of previously non-paying users who completed SponsorPay offers were converted into paying customers.
“Smeet is an excellent example of user-friendly, in-game offer integration resulting in higher conversion and revenue generation. An increase in the number of paying users is the biggest revenue opportunity for most free-to-play gaming companies,” said Janis Zech, Managing Director and co-founder at SponsorPay.
The offers were optimized through in-world integration methods such as linking banners directly to SponsorPay’s iframe or placing promotional avatars in different locations within Smeet’s virtual world. Revenues from offers increased by 60% because user attention was directed at them during regular game play and not solely during the payment process. Through SponsorPay’s high quality offers, non-paying users were introduced to the concept of acquiring virtual currency. With this deep level of integration, Smeet was able to reach out to those users who would otherwise not have participated in the payment process.
“The conversion effect is especially astonishing,” said Sebastian Funke, Smeet’s CEO and co-founder. “Thanks to SponsorPay, we experienced a massive inflow of new paying customers – about one-fifth of the users who received Smeet Coins with free offers from SponsorPay later returned to purchase Coins using PayPal, PaybyCall, SMS, credit cards or other options. The number of paying customers increased significantly. This proves that SponsorPay is not only a strong addition but actually boosts our regular payment options.”
In Smeet’s multi-user social game, users can meet others, create their own avatars or rooms and get to know each other by playing games, watching videos together, earning points, competing against each other in different levels as well as communicating via text or voice chat. SponsorPay provides Smeet’s 3 million-plus members in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece and Poland with free Coins for taking part in localized advertising offers from trusted partners.
Berlin - July 14, 2010.
Lolapps, King.com, VZnet, NHN USA And i-Jet Media Trust SponsorPay For Localized Monetization
SponsorPay, Europe’s leading virtual currency monetization platform has announced new partnerships with industry leaders of social games publishers and social networks.
Lolapps, King.com, VZnet, NHN USA and i-Jet media are the latest among hundreds of publishers who provide their users with SponsorPay’s transparent and localized ad offers as well as easy direct payment options. “We are very happy to work with such renowned partners and serve them with our powerful monetization tool that will most certainly boost their revenues to a new level”, said Janis Zech, co-founder & Managing Director of SponsorPay.
Lolapps is one of the main developers of social games and applications on Facebook, serving over 50 million active users per month. SponsorPay’s excellent localized performance and user-friendly approach have also convinced King.com, a pioneer in casual gaming with a massive user base of more than 15 million monthly active users (MAU).
Gaming portal NHN USA and social games publisher i-Jet media have partnered with SponsorPay as part of their monetization strategy for traffic outside the US – an area of fast growing importance for social game providers. “The quality of SponsorPay’s localized offers clearly stands out. They are simply the best solution for monetizing traffic from all over the world”, said Daniel Chang, Vice President of Business Development at NHN USA.
SponsorPay also becomes the only monetization platform to offer ad-funded payments for social games of the VZnet Group (former StudiVZ ltd.), a popular European social network with 16.5 million users. “We have decided on SponsorPay because it is the only company that commits to 100% transparent, user-friendly offers and renowned partners. With SponsorPay’s innovative concept we can increase the revenues of our social gaming partners while users of the VZ networks experience real added value”, commented Sebastian Kriese, Manager Strategic Partnerships at VZnet.
SponsorPay’s existing clients include Gameforge, Bigpoint, Café.com and 6waves. Based in Berlin, Germany with offices in London, Paris and San Francisco, SponsorPay is the European market leader and rapidly expanding worldwide.
Contact Information
Projjol Banerjea
SponsorPay GmbH
Ackerstr. 14/15
10115 Berlin Germany
Office: +49 30 20 21 56 60 0
Fax: +49 30 20 21 56 61 5
press@sponsorpay.com
Berlin - June 9, 2010.
SponsorPay raises $5M from Hasso Plattner Ventures and Team Europe Ventures
SponsorPay, the leading virtual currency monetization platform in Europe, announced today that it has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Hasso Plattner Ventures. Previous investors Team Europe Ventures and Kite Ventures also participated in this round. The Berlin-based company will use the investment to accelerate growth in international markets and further expand its leadership role in Europe.
“We are very happy that Hasso Plattner Ventures have joined our team of investors. Their international network and experience will help us extend our leadership beyond Europe,” said SponsorPay’s CEO Andreas Bodczek. “We have four times the publishers, three times the staff and double the offers for most European markets than our closest competitors. Most importantly, we consistently generate up to five times more revenue from European traffic when compared with our US-based competitors. Now, it is time to use this clear value proposition to monetize publishers who are not based in Europe but have traffic here,” added Janis Zech, co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer. The company recently signed contracts with leading international publishers 6waves and Perfect World and expects to work with at least 50% of the largest US-based publishers by the end of the year.
This latest infusion of capital is testament to SponsorPay’s tremendous growth – within the past year the company has expanded to 40 employees and serves local advertising offers to over 150 million users in more than 100 countries. "We are pleased with SponsorPay's progress so far and strongly believe that the innovative concept along with the talent across the company, which has already made SponsorPay the European leader, will take it to the next level internationally. Only one year old, they convinced us with their professional management and absolute will to succeed," commented Yaron Valler, partner at Hasso Plattner Ventures. “Congratulations to the team for reaching this next milestone,” said Lukasz Gadowski, partner at Team Europe Ventures.
SponsorPay, established in 2009, has rapidly become the dominant force in virtual currency monetization in Europe. In February this year, it acquired its main European competitor GratisPay. The company works with almost all major Europe-based online game publishers such as Gameforge, Bigpoint, Gala Networks, InnoGames, Café.com and Frogster. On the advertiser side, SponsorPay is focused on building direct relations with branded advertisers to provide user-friendly and transparent offers to online gamers and users of social networks.
Berlin - March 24, 2010.
Commission Junction and SponsorPay extend existing cooperation globally
Commission Junction and SponsorPay extend their cooperation on a broad international basis: The leading global affiliate network and the leading virtual currency platform in Europe from now on work together in more than 30 countries in the EU, North and South America. The extremely strong position of Commission Junction in the USA further strengthens the US position of SponsorPay.
Commission Junction and SponsorPay focus on providing the highest payout for SponsorPay’s clients by combining the enormous reach of both partners with the advantages of performance marketing and SponsorPay’s innovative business model: Users get virtual currency in online games, social networks and social games for a certain action, e.g. participating in a survey or buying in a shop. To continue to guarantee high quality traffic and leads/sales, Berlin based SponsorPay does a quality check for every single user. A win-win-win situation for the advertiser, Commission Junction and SponsorPay’s publishers is the
result.
Last month SponsorPay took over GratisPay, one of its biggest competitors and is now European market leader in this sector reaching more than 100 million users in over 30 countries. The company is providing monetization channels for nearly all of the major gaming publishers in Europe, such as Gameforge, Bigpoint, Innogames or Café.com.
"Commission Junction is the perfect partner for our expansion in Europe and the USA. Due to our successful relationship in Germany and France it was an obvious choice for us to continue our international expansion in Affiliate Marketing with Commission Junction”, said Janis Zech, Co-founder/ Head of Business Development, SponsorPay.
Albrecht Fischer, Client Development Director, Commission Junction Germany added: “We are very happy that SponsorPay chose CJ for their international expansion. We can extend and support their strong position with our global Affiliate network internationally.”
Berlin, 9 Février 2010
SponsorPay rachète GratisPay
Le leader du secteur des paiements basés sur la publicité renforce sa position sur le marché Européen.
“L’acquisition de GratisPay est une étape importante pour notre société,” indique le CEO de SponsorPay GmbH, Andreas Bodczek. Le regroupement des deux sociétés créé le leader européen des systèmes de paiement basés sur la publicité, déjà choisi comme prestataire par la plupart des principaux éditeurs européen de jeux en ligne.
Fondées toutes les deux au cours de l'année passée, SponsorPay et GratisPay sont devenues, en seulement quelques mois, les plateformes de monétisation les plus efficaces pour l'industrie du jeu en ligne Européenne. Parmi leurs principaux clients, elles comptent les principaux éditeurs de jeux en ligne que sont Gameforge, Bigpoint, Innogames et Frogster. « Entre SponsorPay et GratisPay, nous avons déjà pour clients la majeure partie des 10 principaux éditeurs de jeux en ligne européens, » déclare Andreas Bodczek. « Regrouper les deux plateformes nous permettra d'offrir aux éditeurs comme aux annonceurs un portfolio extrêmement intéressant."
En plus des MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games), l'objectif est de renforcer la présence de la société sur le marché des applications et jeux pour réseaux sociaux. Cafe.com, éditeur d'un portail de jeu en ligne et expert des applications pour réseaux sociaux, a déjà réussi à accroître sensiblement ses revenus grâce à sa coopération avec SponsorPay. Baptiste Mercier, Marketing Manager pour l'application populaire "Is Cool" de Cafe.com l'explique ainsi: "SponsorPay a de loin les offres les plus pertinentes et les mieux traduites pour le marché Européen, et elles respectent parfaitement les règles de Facebook. Depuis l'intégration de SponsorPay, nous avons observé une augmentation très impressionnante et inattendue de nos revenus, en comparaison des revenus générés avec des prestataires américains."
D'un point de vue opérationnel, les deux marques et équipes de SponsorPay et GratisPay resteront en place. Jan Beckers, Managing Director et responsable des relations avec les éditeurs, explique: “Bien que les noms ainsi que les produits des deux sociétés restent inchangés, nous augmentons sensiblement notre avance sur nos principaux concurrents en combinant les offres publicitaires de nos deux marques."
L„exigence de qualité constamment mise en avant par SponsorPay GmbH demeure, assurant aux joueurs une expérience transparente lors de l'utilisation du service: les contrôles de qualité répétés permettent d'assurer l'exclusion des abonnements dissimulés ou des offres génératrices de spam. Selon Jan Beckers, "en combinant les deux marques, nous avons mis au coeur de notre stratégie d'expansion un objectif de monétisation à long terme pour les éditeurs (“sustainable monetization”)."
Le prix d'acquisition n'a pas été rendu public.
Berlin - August 31, 2009
Andreas Bodczek Joins SponsorPay GmbH Management Team
Former Telefónica Deutschland CEO to advance growth and internationalization of Berlin-based start-up
As SponsorPay GmbH’s new managing director, Andreas Bodczek assumes business management responsibilities which include establishing and advancing the international advertising platform to drive the company’s future development. The Berlin-based enterprise introduced its innovative payment system for the online gaming industry in 2009 and already counts such renowned companies as Gameforge AG and Frogster Online Gaming among its customers.
Free access to premium content in online games – the concept of having “sponsors” to finance virtual goods and premium content through advertising is meeting with the approval of players and the industry alike. “We have been on the market for barely a month and our client roster already includes some of the largest games companies,” Jan Beckers, SponsorPay’s co-founder and head of Publisher Relations and Marketing, happily remarks. At the leading games trade show in Europe, gamescom 2009, the Berlin-based entrepreneurs welcomed their newest customer, the world’s biggest independent publisher of browser- and client-based online games, Gameforge AG.
“We scrutinize our advertising partners thoroughly,” Jan Beckers explains. “With this kind of quality control, the users of our service can rest assured that they will find only legitimate sponsors on our platform. Games publishers, in turn, benefit from a steadily increasing number of satisfied users and long-term growth in sales through the sponsors.” And that is why portal operators are embracing the innovative advertising platform. In the future, SponsorPay will serve not only the gaming industry, but extend its reach to other domestic and international online applications, virtual worlds and e-commerce platforms.
After its successful launch in Germany the company now turns to focus on swiftly expanding the international reach of its service offering and consistently enhancing the quality of the advertising portfolio. The young team is therefore adding management staff with profound expertise in these areas. Andreas Bodczek is taking over the commercial management of the company with immediate effect as managing director, having acted as a consultant to the project over the past weeks. This puts him in charge of corporate development and the setting up and expansion of the international advertising platform. Andreas Bodczek earned a degree in business management (Diplom-Kaufmann) and most recently held the position of CEO at Telefónica Deutschland, the company which under his direction established itself as Germany’s leading wholesale provider of DSL and Voice over IP services. “Within just a few months, the SponsorPay team has turned an interesting idea into a company operating on an international scale, with highly attractive customers like Gameforge AG,” states Andreas Bodczek. “I look forward to contributing my experience to build a lasting basis for this company and to press ahead for continued, rapid growth.”.
Berlin - August 20, 2009
SponsorPay convinces Gameforge
Startup partners with market leader for online games, gives 85 million players free access to virtual goods.
The startup SponsorPay GmbH has been on the market for just a few weeks and already reaches millions of online gamers with its new payment system. The opportunity to receive virtual goods and items for free by accepting an offer from one of SponsorPay’s 1,000 advertising partners is well received by gamers. And the industry is amazed by the new possibility to generate a higher number of paying users: SponsorPay is now proud to present its new customer Gameforge, the biggest publisher of browser and client-based MMOGs worldwide.
Free acces s to online content that usually has to be paid for. This is made possible with the new payment method provided by Berlin-based SponsorPay GmbH. “Instead of paying with real euros a player can now complete one of our advertising offers to purchase, for instance, a virtual item for a computer game“, comments Jan Beckers, Managing Director and co-founder of SponsorPay. “In return, he’ll receive the virtual good for free.”
But not only gamers benefit from the new system. For publishers of online games, it works as an effective tool to raise revenues and increase their reach. Previously many players did not access premium content, being unwilling to pay for it. The possibility to receive it for free increases the game’s attractiveness and player activity. And the game publisher is paid a commission by the advertiser for each completed offer and thereby receives his real euros.
These arguments now have convinced one of the most important companies of the digital entertainment industry as well. „Our new customer Gameforge is one of the leading independent providers of browser and client-based online games“, Jan Beckers comments. „This cooperation means a boost in reach for our advertising partners in Europe who now have access to an additional 85 million registered users.“ And Klaas Kersting, Managing Director of Gameforge, is sure to have entered a successful cooperation with SponsorPay: „As we are pursuing a long-term growth strategy, which is based on high consumer satisfaction, we are putting a high value on the transparency of advertising offers. With SponsorPay, we are happy to have found a partner who shares our philosophy completely and already serves a large portion of our markets in Europe.
About SponsorPay:
SponsorPay GmbH (www.sponsorpay.com), which is seated in Berlin Mitte, was founded by Team Europe Ventures, Jan Beckers and Janis Zech and is currently employing 25 people. SponsorPay serves Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the U.K., France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Russia, the US, Canada and Turkey with native country managers and a localized product. Through their partners SponsorPay is able to reach more than 10 million users throughout Europe.
About Gameforge:
Gameforge (www.gameforge.com) is the world’s largest independent provider of browser and client-based MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games). Founded in December 2003 by Klaas Kersting and Alexander Rösner the company employs more than 300 people at its headquarters in Karlsruhe, Germany. Accel Partners is invested since August 2007. Gameforge offers 15 games in more than 50 languages. The number of registered players of those games is at around 85 million. Their most popular games are the browser-based MMOG OGame and Europe’s largest client-based MMOG, Metin2. In 2008 Gameforge has been awarded numerous awards, including the “Red Herring 100 Europe”, the “Entrepreneur des Jahres 2008” and the “Technology Fast 50 Rising Stars”. Gameforge has also been elected by the World Economic Forum as “Technology Pioneer 2009”. The International Business Awards has honored Gameforge as “Most Innovative Company of the Year in Europe“ in 2009. Also this year, Gameforge has won the “Best browser game“ category of the “German Computer Games Award” with its game “Ikariam”.
Berlin, le 13 août 2009
SponsorPay propose aux joueurs en ligne d'accéder gratuitement au contenu premium
Acheter sur Internet ne devrait pas toujours vous coûter de l'argent ! SponsorPay GmbH, une start-up située à Berlin, propose une alternative très intéressante pour les joueurs en ligne qui souhaitent acheter des biens virtuels. Au lieu de payer, les joueurs peuvent compléter l'une des nombreuses offres des partenaires de SponsorPay et recevoir de la monnaie ou des biens virtuels gratuitement. A l'occasion du Gamescom 2009 à Cologne, du 19 au 23 août, l'entreprise sera présente sur son stand (hall 4.1, stand A30) et sera heureuse de répondre à toutes les questions des visiteurs intéressés.
Le marché des jeux en ligne est en train d'exploser et de plus en plus souvent les éditeurs de jeux gagnent de l'argent grâce aux "biens virtuels" qui peuvent être achetés dans leur application. Par exemple, dans un jeu de fantasy, un joueur qui voudrait se procurer une épée spéciale pour compléter son équipement devra jouer longtemps pour cela. Il existe une autre solution, plus simple et plus rapide : acheter l'objet avec son propre argent.
Grâce à la solution de paiement innovante développée par SponsorPay, les joueurs peuvent désormais financer leurs biens virtuels grâce à des partenaires publicitaires (les "sponsors"). Pour cela, ils peuvent compléter des offres publicitaires qui leur coûtent un peu de leur temps, mais pas d'argent. Ces offres peuvent être de toutes sortes, depuis la participation à une étude de marché ou le téléchargement d'un logiciel gratuit, jusqu'à la souscription à un abonnement d'essai à un magazine.
Pour les annonceurs, cette méthode de paiement innovante ouvre la voie à une nouvelle façon d'acquérir des données et des coordonnées client. Grâce à l'audience internationale des partenaires de SponsorPay, les annonceurs peuvent élargir considérablement leur cible. Peu de temps après le lancement de cette start-up basée à Berlin, son service est déjà disponible dans 14 pays en Europe en version locale. Jan Beckers, directeur général et co-fondateur, commente cette croissance accélérée : "Aucune autre industrie n'est comparable avec le marché des jeux en ligne. On joue à certains de ces jeux dans plus de 50 pays. Depuis le début, la technologie et la structure de notre d'entreprise sont au service de cette croissance rapide. Dans un avenir proche, nous voulons proposer notre système aux joueurs de toute l'Europe et de l'Amérique du Nord, dans leur langue maternelle."
Les premiers clients de SponsorPay sont les éditeurs de jeux en ligne, comme Frogster Online Gaming GmbH ("Runes of Magic"), Gamelabs GmbH ("Gallendor") et Playa Games GmbH ("Shakes & Fidget"). Björn Koschin, directeur général de Frogster Online Gaming GmbH, commente ce choix : "Nous avons décidé de travailler avec SponsorPay car ils sont présents sur beaucoup de nos marchés, et traduits en différentes langues. Nous avons aussi été convaincu par leur politique de transparence sur les offres et leurs perspectives de revenu."
A propos de SponsorPay:
SponsorPay GmbH (www.sponsorpay.com), installée dans le centre de Berlin, a été fondée par Team Europe Ventures, Jan Beckers et Janis Zech et emploie actuellement 25 personnes. SponsorPay est présente en Allemagne, en Autriche, en Suisse, au Royaume-Uni, en France, en Espagne, en Italie, aux Pays-Bas, en Suède, en Pologne, en Russie, aux Etats-Unis, au Canada et en Turquie, avec des managers originaires de chacun de ces pays et une version locale du système. Grâce à ses partenaires, SponsorPay a accès à une audience de plus de 10 millions d 'utilisateurs à travers l'Europe.
Contact
SponsorPay GmbH
Jan Beckers
Linienstraße 139
10115 Berlin
T gs/en.js" type="text/javascript"> eacute;l. +49/30/20 21 56 61 0
Fax. +49/30/20 21 56 615 5
jan.beckers@sponsorpay.com
www.sponsorpay.com
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Contact presse
Quinke Networks
Achim Quinke
Bei den Mühren 70
20457 Hamburg
Tél. +49/40/43 09 39 49
Fax. +49/40/43 09 39 97
mail@quinke.com
www.quinke.com