PROMIPOOL, a strategic holding of Ecommerce Alliance AG (ISIN DE000A12UK08), an entry standard listing at the Frankfurt stock exchange, has succeeded in establishing itself as one of the leading publishing house-independent people portals and continues going from strength to strength. Due to the dynamic development of operations of the online portal with significantly higher than expected visitor numbers, PROMIPOOL GmbH has managed to come into profit for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2016. The portal now achieves 40 million page impressions per month. Over the course of the past three years, its reach has increased by around 1.800 percent.
“We are very happy with PROMIPOOL’s development. We see the success of the online portal as undeniable proof that our long-term investment strategy is the way forward”, says Daniel Wild, CEO of Ecommerce Alliance AG. “PROMIPOOL ingeniously combines contemporary online storytelling with a highly scalable marketing model that includes our “Content-meets-Commerce” approach, which has made the publishing house-independent portal so unique and popular – with our loyal readership, as well as with our business partners.”
Ecommerce Alliance AG had been convinced of the success of PROMIPOOL right from the beginning. About three years ago, the Munich-based holding company became interested in the then largely unknown online portal and took on a minority participation. Ecommerce Alliance AG currently holds 45 percent of PROMIPOOL GmbH shares, as well as a call option to increase shareholdings to 70 percent.
An important milestone was reached in 2015 with the implementation of the multi-screen strategy. Now the portal has become profitable for the very first time. PROMIPOOL offers its followers a broad spectrum of short news and long-term content about their favourite celebrities at high standard of journalism. Users also benefit from various emotional added-value offers. By way of state-of-the-art software, users can shop for the outfits of their stars as a “lookalike”; PROMIPOOL is a catalyst and trendsetter. A high level of gamification rounds off the appeal of the online portal. In total, these varied offerings increase customer loyalty for the innovative online people magazine.
“Now that PROMIPOOL is in the black for the first time in this fourth quarter of 2016, we will sustainably build further growth and follow our successful “Buy and Build” strategy with determination”, explains Daniel Wild. Ecommerce Alliance AG follows the strategic approach of investing early in promising niche players and to continuously increase their holdings in successful investments.
Aside from PROMIPOOL, another minority participation from the Ecommerce Alliance portfolio has also reached the profit phase. Orbit Internet Service GmbH (OIS) is another of their promising and profitable shareholdings.
The B2C online shop for professional hair care products – Libute.de – is well on its way towards becoming profitable. “We had a lot of success with our investments in 2016 and have a very optimistic outlook for the coming year. It is incredibly exciting to watch how successful PROMIPOOL is becoming in the highly competitive environment of online journalism, simply by offering an innovative approach and variety. Our concept allows us to respond to the very different reading and consumption habits of the online user community. We will extend this success model to other new participations over the coming years”, adds ECA CEO Daniel Wild.
