Yes. We are operating this business model of selling digital products and streaming services to consumers globally for 20 years. We have advertised these services via different media channels over time: at the beginning, we were selling black-and-white logos for Nokia phones, jokes, horoscopes and later on games via TV commercials. Today, we are selling streaming services that bundle movies & series, music, audiobooks, sports and games to consumers globally via performance marketing. We are part of the digital evolution, and we are convinced that streaming service consumption will continue to appeal and grow. 

No. CLIQ does not run subscription traps. All our streaming services always offer a free trial subscription and a no-nonsense cancellation policy. Besides, a new member is always clearly informed about all relevant aspects of the service during the multi-step customer journey while signing up for the service. Each and every paid membership always has an active multi-step opt-in flow in place prior to subscription, numerous opt-in security measures and a clear confirmation of the agreed membership immediately after the transaction. 

A new member is always informed about:

1) the price of the service, including the billing frequency

2) that the service is a subscription

3) the contact details of our customer service

4) the options for cancelling the service

5) the (address) details of the provider of the service

6) hyperlinks to the general terms and conditions as well as data protection provisions.

CLIQ’s business model is – and has always been - based on performance marketing. Looking at our 20-year-old heritage, we have always catered to a market where consumers purchased spontaneously, and usage was of a shorter term. We focus first and foremost on continuously acquiring new memberships.

The performance marketing approach is a highly reliable and efficient method to acquire new members – one that we have excelled in doing so for many years. We never make material investments in content nor marketing if we are not sure that we can thereby acquire new members in a profitable way. Despite the average membership duration ranging between seven and eight months, the Group always aims to generate a positive margin already within the first six months of a members’ lifecycle, which in other words means that every marketing dollar or euro spent is making a profit. 

We, at CLIQ, are constantly improving our service offering as well as our content offering, including its quality.

Although the international business has been growing for years, we are still a very small player in the German streaming market. Until the end of 2022, CLIQ operated numerous streaming services in Germany, but the sales numbers were never material and the brand name CLIQ was not used. Therefore, it is understandable that both online traffic and review numbers with the name CLIQ were low. 

The Group’s services are distributed mainly via websites and only our German flagship streaming service, www.cliq.de, is currently available as an additional app version, which explains the lack of product reviews and ratings in App stores. 

We run multiple, different streaming services across our 40+ markets. In general, we do not want to share our service and marketing portals publicly, as we consider them to be a company secret and are therefore confidential information. If we would disclose them our competitors (and other companies who are bidding for similar add space) will be able to see on which domains our advertising banners are shown, allowing them to directly compete with us on one or more specific domain(s), leading to an increase in pricing for our online advertising or even worse: CLIQ could lose specific online traffic as competitors might be able to pay a higher price.

The evolution and further development of the business model has resulted in the flagship bundled-content service, Cliq. This service has a selling price of €6.99 per month, a 30-day free trial period and is currently only operated in Germany (www.cliq.de). The service is advertised via both online performance marketing as well as via brand marketing, including B2B partnerships and affiliation initiatives, with an overall much greater focus on conversions based upon traffic data and flow optimisation.

At cliq.de, we have seen that the different content categories are well received and that our members recognise the advantage of Cliq’s all-in-one solution. During the 6-month test phase, in which a total of ten different traffic sources (channels that lead visitors to our landing page) were tested and optimised, we were able to acquire a 5-digit number of new members.

CLIQ does not own any payment providers. Our core competencies are performance marketing and selling streaming services and not payment services. Therefore, we prefer to work with external business partners who are experts in their field that can give us the time, quality and expertise we need. The same goes for content. We are not content creators/producers, but work with partners who are experts in their field of operation.

The Group’s business partners who are tasked with billing are also tasked with activities like customer service, merchant accounts (in case of credit card billing) and regulatory advice on a local level, which cannot be accomplished by big, well-known payment service providers. For that reason, the Group initiated the co-operation with several partners who have the necessary expertise to provide the required services.

We focus on performance-based online advertising to maximise return on investment (ROI). We use data-driven approaches to analyse the performance of our campaigns and optimise them for better results.

We utilise the power of Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) Ads Manager and other DSP (Demand Side Platforms) to find the best matching target audiences and niches for our services. We also use advanced tracking and reporting to monitor the performance of our campaigns in real time and optimise them for better results. 

We optimise our campaigns for conversions by A/B testing different creative designs, ad copy, and ad placement. This helps us to identify the most effective combinations that lead to conversions. Finally, we use analytics to gain deep insights into how our campaigns are performing. We use this data to identify areas of improvement and make adjustments to our campaigns to ensure maximum ROI.

The customer acquisition costs that are directly allocable to new memberships are capitalised as an intangible asset on the Group’s balance sheet (so-called contract costs). This implemented accounting practice secures a fair representation of the gross margin realised and transparently discloses the realistic development of the results of the company.

For unsubscribed memberships, the contract costs are fully expensed immediately after un-subscription. For subscribed memberships, the amortisation of the contract costs is in line with the expected income from a group of members and set for a maximum period of 18 months. If we expect most of the income to be realised in the first 6 months, then the amortised amount follows this development and does not show a linear amortisation. Furthermore, the customer acquisition costs that cannot be directly allocated to new member subscription services, e.g. for brand marketing, are expensed directly in the P&L and not capitalised.

Per 31 December 2023, the company reported contract costs to the amount of €49m. On the other hand, the lifetime value of customer base (LTVCB) totalled €164m (unaudited), which is an off-balance sheet item representing the total revenue expected to be generated by existing members and is directly correlated to the capitalised contract costs.

The capitalisation of our customer acquisition costs (marketing spend) is in line with IFRS accounting principles, implemented since FY 2014 and audited annually by a leading international audit, tax and advisory firm (Mazars) with an unqualified opinion. 

The Group’s structure is a result of all its mergers and acquisitions since 2005. Due to the acquisition of CLIQ B.V. in 2012, the Group added already a significant number of entities. CLIQ B.V. itself was already the result of a merger between two Dutch groups, which were both operating in Singapore, and for which both needed a local entity to operate their businesses. Also, the acquisitions of Universal Mobile Enterprise in the UK and Affimobiz in France added additional entities to the Group during 2016. At the same time, the holding company (the AG founded in 2004) still has deferred tax assets on its balance sheet originating from before the acquisition of CLIQ B.V.. These deferred tax assets can still be utilised (which we are doing) for tax relief purposes. Finally, while operating and employing international offices, we need to have a structure in place to comply with the local (tax) rules with regards to the local workforce.

In 4Q 2022, the Group initiated a corporate restructuring project to review, reorganise and streamline the company structure and has subsequently liquidated and merged various subsidiaries. Per 31 December 2023, the Group operated 18 active companies, of which 12 are EU-located.

The Group's business model makes it possible to manage business activities centrally and therefore does not necessarily require the deployment of local staff. This has been the Group's modus operandi from the outset. 

Here is an example of the North American market: In 2005, we sold the "Joke-of-the-Day" in the USA. In just one year, we sold 30 million jokes for one dollar each. The jokes were sent daily by text message and the whole business was run from Amsterdam without the need of local staff because our products are digital and we can manage our business online in real time.