1. News flow: How do you decide when to issue a press release, for example by RNS?
Bango publishes news frequently to keep investors and partners updated on progress, to share market developments, provide financial information and meet regulatory obligations. Bango “Thrive” values include T for Transparency, so we publish news when we can, through “traditional” channels like Business Wire, direct journalist contacts and Stock Exchange RNS distribution. Bango technology is used by some of the world’s biggest companies – Amazon, Google, Microsoft for example – and they place restrictions on disclosure of information about their businesses. This means Bango is unable to disclose details of certain contract wins or forecast the business potential of some agreements. Investors should visit Bango.com as well as Bangoinvestor.com for lots of news and updates, follow Bango on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to get the maximum flow of useful information.
2. How does Bango see the opportunities presented by cloud-hosted gaming platforms, and will 5G make this a bigger opportunity?
Bango data shows that games drive a huge amount of engagement online, through app stores (Google Play being the most popular) and directly through a handful of specialized gaming platforms (such as Steam). In-App Payment is a frequently used method for monetizing games, which Bango enables by making it easy for stores selling games, and gaming platforms directly, to charge their customers. Games developers that capture revenue through In-App Payments increasingly use Bango to increase the ROI from their marketing. They use Bango Audiences to optimize their campaigns towards customers most likely to pay in-app. A double win for the gaming industry.
Early evidence indicates that 5G availability increases the number of gamers, and has attracted specialist game platform providers such as Hatch in the United States. These services are offered as subscriptions which enable End User Spend to build long-term. Platforms like Google Stadia should also benefit from better connectivity provided through 5G networks. Expect gaming platforms and mobile network operators to promote 5G as a “game changer”.
3. Bango said it would post further news about Covid impacts. What is the latest?
Bango has continued to provide updates about the impact of Covid-19 and will do so as we learn significant trends or gain insights. In March, Bango reported that it was able to quickly extend pre-existing remote / flexible working practices to ensure that Bango employees could continue to support our customers and manage the other demands of lockdown on people’s lives.
Indirectly, the news that Bango has signed a strategic partnership and investment from NHN, won a major new global telecoms deal and further expanded the Google business has demonstrated that Bango continues to make rapid progress despite economic and travel turbulence.
4. Bango FY19 results showed that operating expenses for the payment platform continued to be flat over the last 4 years despite a 16 times increase in EUS. How was that possible, and how can it continue?
The hardware systems that the Bango Platform runs on continue to reduce in cost and get faster. A recent move to use cloud based systems has resulted in substantial cost advantages and ability to manage peaks. The biggest operating cost is for the people to manage the platform and to handle any problems encountered in third party interfaces such as the mobile operator billing systems. By the continuous automation of tasks, strong partnerships and relentless attention to platform quality, Bango has kept opex down. By maintaining focus on reliability and automation, and using the latest AI based and self-healing techniques – including from strategic partner NHN – Bango expects to maintain opex stability as EUS continues to double.
5. Bango has a very interesting strategy around monetization of payment insights. How do you securely sell this data?
First of all, Bango does not sell data. Bango technology analyzes what products and services people pay for and how, it generates marketing audiences from these insights. Using these, merchants can sharpen the focus of their existing campaigns to increase the number of paying users they attract.
The entire process complies with the latest legislation, for example GDPR and CCPA law (CCPA is the US equivalent of GDPR). All information is compiled anonymously and in aggregate. Merchants use Bango Audience’s under the control of Facebook, Google and other marketing platforms, so consumer opt-ins and privacy are safeguarded. Bango calls this “Triple Lock (TM)”, which is an assurance of control and security. Consumers benefit from seeing more focused offers that align with their purchase interests, rather than ads simply based on demographic profile or search history.
