23% rise in profit during first three quarters of the year as martech platform revenue soars
Athens, London, Sao Paulo, October 20th 2022 – Upstream, the global mobile marketing technology specialist has reported a 15% rise in revenue over the first nine months of 2022.
Mobile is one of the fastest growing sectors in marketing
The martech expert has been transforming its business and has swiftly responded to the growing demand for digital services, following the pandemic. During the first three quarters of the year, Upstream has seen revenues from its mobile marketing platform, Grow, launched in 2021, rising by more than 22%. Revenues from Grow currently account for two thirds of Upstream’s revenue, with the number estimated to exceed 90% by 2025, as demand for digital customer interactions, promotions, and sales soars. Revenue growth for the martech has been coupled with healthy profitability as seen in Upstream’s operational (EBITDA) margin that hit the 23% mark at the end of September 2022.
Mobile is one of the fastest-growing sectors in marketing. Mobile Marketing Market value is estimated at over $100bn globally with its growth rate calculated at 23% (CAGR) until the end of 2027[1]. With global mobile penetration at an all-time high, the upcoming abolition of third-party tracking cookies from most browsers as well as increasing consumer concerns around privacy, means businesses, and mobile network operators (MNOs) are looking toward mobile marketing to boost sales, improve customer experience (CX), and support revenue growth.
“Upstream is more than ready to meet the new demand for targeted, personalized, and efficient customer engagement on mobile, as businesses rebound and steer their return to growth. The pandemic found us amid our business transformation process and not only did we manage to see it through successfully but have already started to see healthy growth from our efforts. We are making the most of the tremendous market momentum and use its growth rates as our compass for excellence,” said Dimitris Maniatis, CEO at Upstream.
“Despite market upheavals on all fronts, our international presence and concurrent transformation of our business model – no less during a global pandemic – we have managed to increase revenue from our new line of business while maintaining healthy KPIs across the board,” added George Serfiotis, Chief Financial Officer at Upstream.
“We continue to focus on delivering multi-channel customer engagement campaigns and helping MNOs and enterprises achieve their business goals in some very exciting fast-growing markets,” said CEO Dimitris Maniatis. “The growth the business has achieved for the nine months of 2022 is remarkable, as we now address a market of one billion consumers worldwide, working with over 370 advertisers while generating more than 3.1bn interactions with consumers. None of this would be possible without our incredibly talented team, their dedication and hard work,” Upstream’s CEO added.
From strength-to-strength
Fueling Upstream’s growth and consumer interactions is the martech platform, Grow, which has been built from the ground up to work with mobile operators and enterprises. Grow can now deliver mobile marketing campaigns that drive five times higher conversions with 30% less effort and a three times ROI. Through its martech platform, Upstream has helped major mobile operators like Vodacom ZA and TIM Brazil increase the reach and interaction of their OTT video services and marketing campaigns respectively through multichannel campaigns.
New proprietary technologies
Upstream continues to expand Grow’s capabilities by adding new features, channels and advertising capabilities for MNOs, retailers, and marketers of other verticals. These include enhanced reporting and scheduling, the launch of an e-commerce specific version, and the ability to identify users from the web via their mobile number. The latter feature is a patented technology that can identify up to 85% of a website’s visitors enabling accurate and efficient mobile marketing in a fully private and compliant way. Upstream’s newly introduced Mobile Identity technology comes in time to address the digital advertising industry’s search for new identification methods, necessary due to the upcoming demise of third-party cookies.
e-commerce and Brazilian expansion
With the launch of an e-commerce specific version of Grow, Upstream expanded its reach into online retail in Brazil, last June, notably one of the fastest growing e-commerce playing fields in the world. Having already signed up some major Brazilian e-commerce players including DiGaspi, Freitas Varejo, Daz Roupaz, and top football club Flamengo, Upstream is increasingly supporting its partners in customizing their marketing communications and converting more traffic over mobile, which is inevitably becoming the main channel for e-commerce sales.
Having logged in over 15 years in the Latin American country, working mostly with telcos, Upstream is now growing its local team and has created new positions across multiple business functions. By the end of the year, the company expects to have doubled its headcount in Brazil to be able to capture further opportunities for growth and meet demand from its customers.
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About Upstream
Upstream is a leading martech company in the most important emerging markets in the world. Its mobile marketing automation platform, Grow, unique in its kind, combines innovations in marketing automation and data, security from online advertising fraud, and multi-channel digital communication aimed at creating personalized experiences for end consumers. With more than 4,000 successful mobile marketing campaigns, the Upstream team helps its customers, leading brands around the world, communicate more effectively with their customers, increase digital sales and boost their revenue. Upstream solutions address over one billion consumers in more than 30 countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
For more information please contact:
James Thorniley
Mixology PR
E: james@mixologypr.com
P: +44 20 8189 7749
or
Upstream Corporate Communications
E: corp.comms@upstreamsystems.com
P: +30 6949616318
