2009 was an important turning point for Paris-based mobile/wireless specialists Wister. It was in 2009 that Wister expanded into off-portal services, and it was in 2009 that Wister launched its adultoriented mobile affiliate program Affil4You. Wister, prior to 2009, had emphasized on-portal traffic and had been quite successful in the mainstream mobile sector. But with Affil4You, the French company has made a significant expansion in the adult side of the mobile/wireless sector — and in 2012, Affil4You continues to expand is global reach.
“Wister really entered the adult market with Affil4You,” explained Joey Gabra, Affil4You’s managing director for North America. “Before that, we were mainly working directly with the mobile carriers’ on-portal traffic. Wister was providing sexy content targeting a broader audience.”
Wister really entered the adult market with Affil4You, before that, we were mainly working directly with the mobile carriers’ on-portal traffic.
Wister was in existence for six years before it launched Affil4You, and Gabra said that during those six years, Wister acquired “a huge amount of experience in the mobile sector.” Thanks to all that experience, Gabra said, Wister has been well-equipped to grow and expand Affil4You in different parts of the world.
“Much of this experience was obviously on the technical side of things,” Gabra noted. “For example: page rendering on different types of mobile handsets, carrier billing system connections, text messaging, automatic customer identification using the info provided by the carrier…. We also learned that the user, on his mobile, requires a far simpler and direct user experience than the typical user comfortably seated in front of his desktop. We have learned how to use automatic identification to bypass the need for login and password.
“We also established amazing solutions to use carrier billing to initiate the one-click billing process. We also obtained knowledge on how to use text messaging to improve interactivity and upsell. Finally, we learned to render pages appropriately to provide the maximum potential for each direct user experience.”
In 2011, Affil4You debuted a customizable live adult webcam for cam companies and webmasters; Affil4You’s webcam is compatible with different types of mobile devices, including Apple’s popular iPhone. On January 10, Affil4You was named “Mobile Services Company of the Year” at the 2012 XBIZ Awards.
Although Wister is a French company and has its corporate headquarters in Paris, it also has offices in London and Los Angeles and is quite international in its outlook. In the beginning, however, Affil4You focused primarily on two of Europe’s French-speaking countries: France and Belgium. The idea was to establish Affil4You in those countries and build from there.
“I would say that Affil4You primarily started by establishing the leading presence in its home markets, France and Belgium,” Gabra recalled. “We then expanded our coverage and began providing our amazing mobile solutions on a more global scale.”
Now, Affil4You is serving over 60 different countries. Gabra said that while all of the “technical and development operations” for Wister are based in Paris, “sales, marketing and account management is spread throughout the other office locations and provides the company with opportunities to broaden its exposure in the European and North American marketplace.”
During Affil4You’s three year history, Gabra said, affiliates have appreciated the program’s “consistent payouts”and “robust white-label capabilities” as well as “a great platform that provides strong CRM with upsell and crosssell capabilities.” Other factors that have made Affil4You attractive to affiliates, Gabra added, include “extremely high performance on both conversion rates and retention rates” and “our complete catalogue of tons of high quality videos in a wide range of niches as well as our dating site services.”
The long list of countries in which Affil4You has been successful, according to Gabra, range from Switzerland and Luxembourg in Western Europe to different parts of Latin America and Asia—and in February, Affil4You plans to launch in Italy as well as Hong Kong.
Gabra stressed that a major factor in Affil4You’s international growth has been “our ability to adapt our mobile solutions for each territory we launch in.” Affiliates, Gabra pointed out, have different needs in different countries — and Affil4You, he said, won’t be launched in a country until Wister has analyzed and researched that country’s mobile/wireless needs thoroughly.
‘We make sure to test each territory with our own campaigns for a lengthy period of time to ensure that we can monetize for all sorts of traffic needs before we launch our solutions to the public,” Gabra asserted.
Continued Affil4You expansion in the U.S. is a high priority for Wister, and as Affil4You’s managing director for North America, Gabra has a lot to keep him busy. Gabra’s responsibilities for North America include developing business and sales strategies and overseeing the account executives who report to him. Gabra (who joined Affil4You in late 2011 and previously worked as marketing manager for American Mobile Ventures and Twistbox Entertainment) added that he “initiates and coordinates development of action plans to penetrate new markets” and that he “assists in the development and implementation of marketing plans as needed.”
Another important player at Affil4You is Laurent Baquiast, who is Wister’s general manager and is in charge of Affil4You’s design and marketing; one of the marketing people Baquiast works closely with is Paris-based Matthieu Oldfield, who Gabra described as being “focused only on enduser experience.”
Meanwhile, Affil4You has a technical team that is led by David Lotfi, who oversees no less than 11 Paris-based developers along with two other developers who are based in Romania. Clearly, Wister is a company that knows how to think internationally.
“Our mobile solution is now global,” Gabra asserted, “and we can monetize our partners’ mobile traffic from almost anywhere in the world.”
