Jacobson Pharma Launches Smartfish Health Nutrition Products from Norway in Greater China and Asia Pacific Region

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Jacobson Pharma Launches Smartfish Health Nutrition Products from Norway in Greater China and Asia Pacific Region

HONG KONG, CHINA – Media
OutReach – 12 November 2019 – Jacobson Pharma Corporation Limited (“Jacobson
Pharma” or the  “Group”; Stock Code:
2633), a leading company engaging in research, development, production,
marketing and sale of generic drugs and proprietary medicines, announced the launch of Smartfish’s
health nutrition range of products in Greater China (including Mainland China,
Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) and Asia under an exclusive distribution agreement
with Smartfish AS, a branded health nutrition company
incorporated in Norway.


Smartfish provides products for the consumer health nutrition range and ​is the official supplier of sports nutrition drinks to sports clubs and national teams, including English Premier League Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club 

 

According
to the agreement, the Group has an in-licensed right for 10 years to distribute
and market Smartfish’s  consumer health products
in Greater China and the Asia Pacific Region, covering four product ranges,
namely “Smartfish Recharge” for sports nutrition, “Smartfish Resolve” for
improving metabolic health and diabetes care, “Smartfish Reflect” for promoting
adults’ brain health and cognitive function, and “Smartfish Cream” for
benefiting children’s brain development

 

Built
upon a patented emulsion technology and clinically substantiated, Smartfish’s Omega-3-enhanced nutritional drinks and
emulsion products complement the fast-growing medical and consumer nutrition markets
with products of evidence-based health benefits.

 

Differentiated from standard fish oil
supplements, Smartfish’s emulsion carries high levels of Omega 3 fatty acids,
in synergy with other nutrients, that can produce the potentiating
anti-inflammatory effects to deliver various health benefits . It can also
ensure a tasty delivery of nutrients by protecting Omega-3 fatty acids, which
are rich in fish oil, from oxidizing and forming the rancid taste. The products
are clinically tested, and all health benefit claims for Smartfish products are
supported by rigorous science.

 

Smartfish’s
products range provides health nutrition for the elderly and the young, medical
nutrition for chronic disease patients, and sports nutrition for athletes. Smartfish
has established itself as a trusted nutritional source for professional
athletes worldwide being the official supplier of sports nutrition drinks to
sports clubs and national teams, which include English Premier League Tottenham
Hotspurs Football Club and Norwegian Nordic Combined National Team of Skiing.

 

Jacobson
Pharma’s strategic collaboration with Smartfish also included a shareholding
investment of 9.04% of Smartfish’s issued capital made in July 2019, which is
expected to forge a stronger partnership and platform for both companies on exploring
potential business cooperation in the high growing consumer health nutrition
market in the future.

 

Mr. Derek Sum,
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
Jacobson Pharma, comments, “We welcome
Smartfish’s nutrition products with well-documented potency to our consumer
health product portfolio. The  health
nutrition market has witnessed strong growth driven by the greater inclination
towards self-care and health problems prevention, alongside a growing aged
population and increase in disposable income. Through this collaboration,
Jacobson Pharma has primed itself to collaborate with Smartfish in exploiting
the latent demand for clinically substantiated health nutrition products to
meet different lifestyle and healthcare needs among consumers in Greater China
and the Asia Pacific Region.”

About Jacobson Pharma Corporation Limited (雅各臣科研製藥有限公司；Stock Code: 2633)

Jacobson Pharma is a leading generic drug company in Hong Kong. The Group’s
proprietary brand portfolio, notably being Po Chai Pills (「保濟丸」), Ho Chai Kung Tji Thung San (「何濟公止痛退熱散」), Contractubex Scar Gel (「秀碧除疤膏」) , Flying Eagle Wood Lok Medicated Oil (「飛鷹活絡油」), Tong Tai Chung Woodlok Oil (「唐太宗活絡油」), Doan’s Ointment (「兜安氏藥膏」), Saplingtan (「十靈丹」), Shiling Oil (「十靈油」) and Col-gan Tablet (「傷風克」)  have been widely recognised by the market. The Group aims to
enrich its portfolio through addition of high
value-added products covering sterile injections, oncology products as well as
orphan drugs and biosimilars. With its corporate headquarters based in Hong Kong, the Group has also
established its operating subsidiaries in China, Macau,
Taiwan, Singapore and Cambodia forming a regional commercial platform to tap the market
potential in the Asia Pacific and Greater China region. Jacobson Pharma
has been a constituent stock of MSCI Hong Kong Micro Cap Index since 1 June 2017.
For more details about Jacobson Pharma, please visit the Group’s website:

http://www.jacobsonpharma.com

About Smartfish AS

Smartfish is a company
incorporated in Norway which focuses on research & development, production
and marketing of advanced, science-based and clinically documented nutritional
products. Smartfish provides unique nutritional solutions for both medical use
and consumer health. Its nutrition products are based on a proprietary emulsion
technology that enables the effective delivery of high levels of Omega 3 fatty
acids, whey protein and other nutrients. 
Smartfish has a number of ongoing clinical development projects and
studies in the pipeline in close collaboration with renowned researchers and
institutions around the world. The company was founded in 2001 and is now
headquartered in Oslo, Norway with an operating subsidiary in Lund, Sweden.
Smartfish’s main shareholders include Investinor (a Norwegian-based fund) and Industrifonden
(a Nordic fund). Learn more on www.smartfishnutrition.com.

Jumia Reports Q3 2019: JumiaPay Total Payment Volume up 95% and JumiaPay Transactions up 262% year-over-year

Brand Spur
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Jumia Reports Q3 2019: JumiaPay Total Payment Volume up 95% and JumiaPay Transactions up 262% year-over-year

Marketplace revenue up 52% and Gross profit up 45% year-over-year 

LAGOS, Nigeria – Jumia Technologies AG (NYSE: JMIA) (“Jumia” or the Company) announced today its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2019.

“We are making significant progress in the usage and relevance of our platform for consumers and sellers and are firmly positioning Jumia as the digital destination of choice for everyday needs in Africa. In parallel, we continue to make great strides in our payment and fintech business with JumiaPay showing very strong growth momentum on both volume and transaction metrics,” commented Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Jumia.

“Our financial strategy seeks to balance growth, JumiaPay development, monetization and cost efficiencies. We manage this equation on a dynamic basis and are now placing even greater emphasis on cash discipline and efficiency. Our growth strategy favours business verticals and product categories that drive adoption, repeat purchase and usage. On the cost efficiency front, we continuously seek to optimize our portfolio of assets and geographies to ensure efficient capital allocation. We are confident this strategy will enhance our focus on our core assets and contribute to building a healthy foundation for the long-term growth and success of Jumia.”

Business and Financial highlights

  • Growth momentum in topline drivers
    • We are focused on growing consumer adoption, usage and engagement on our platform. While our GMV increased by 39% this quarter compared to the third quarter of 2018, our Annual Active Consumers for the 12-month period ending September 30, 2019, grew by 56% and number of Orders for the quarter grew by 95% on a year-on-year basis.
    • The fastest-growing categories on our platform in terms of items sold are digital services offered on our JumiaPay mobile application, such as airtime recharge and utility bills payments, which are growing at triple digits, followed by Fast Moving Consumer Goods (“FMCG”), such as groceries and staples, which increased by 99% over the 9-month period ending September 30, 2019 compared to the same period last year. While these categories typically include lower average value items, we believe they drive strong engagement of our users and contribute to repeat purchases and increased consumer lifetime value, while providing consumers with an affordable entry point into our ecosystem.
    • In an effort to enhance our value proposition to sellers and consumers continuously, we have launched Jumia Mall in September 2019. Jumia Mall provides a dedicated space for brands or their official distributors to reach consumers through a customized e-shop with multiple services available to build their brand awareness and online sales performance. These services include marketing and visibility packages, business intelligence and data analytics as well as seamless logistics through the Jumia Express program. As of September 30, 2019, a couple of weeks after its launch, Jumia Mall was already home to approximately 50% of the top 100 Forbes consumer brands, which we believe is a strong validation of the relevance of Jumia as a platform of choice for brands.
  • Development of JumiaPay
    • JumiaPay remains a key focus area for us, and we aim to drive the adoption of Jumia Pay on our platform in a gradual manner, in order to expand into off-platform payments in the future.
    • Our Total Payment Volume (“TPV”) reached €32 million in the third quarter of 2019, up 95% from the same period last year. Our number of JumiaPay Transactions reached 2.1 million, up 262% from the same period last year, demonstrating robust traction of digital payments on our platform. In the third quarter of 2019, approximately 31% of Orders at Group level were settled via JumiaPay compared to 16% a year ago, demonstrating our ability to leverage the marketplace flywheel to drive the adoption of JumiaPay.
    • As of September 30, 2019, JumiaPay is available in six markets: Nigeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Morocco and Kenya. We continue to prepare the rollout into selected new markets in the near future.
    • Our financial services marketplace, which is part of JumiaPay, is a core element of our fintech ecosystem. Jumia Lending, which today acts as an intermediary between sellers on our platform and third-party financial institutions, is making great progress in driving financial inclusion and access to credit for SMEs. Jumia Lending is instrumental in the credit underwriting process, providing valuable business data to financial institutions to help pre-score the credit of our sellers. We typically take no credit risk and have no balance sheet exposure to such loans. As of September 30, 2019, Jumia Lending is available in the six countries where JumiaPay is active. Jumia Lending helped in the origination of approximately €5 million worth of loans to more than 770 sellers on our platform since its launch in early 2017. The average loan amount is around €3,200 for an average duration of 5 months.
  • Increased monetization
    • In parallel with driving topline growth and development of JumiaPay, Gross profit increased by 45% compared to the third quarter of 2018, while Marketplace revenue increased by 52% over the same period, demonstrating our ability to effectively drive monetization while sustaining robust growth of our platform. Driving revenue and gross profit is an important part of our strategy and a primary focus for us.
    • Our monetization strategy aims to create diversified revenue streams from transaction activity and usage of our platform, particularly through the monetization of services that enhance our sellers’ performance, such as Jumia Express or Jumia Advertising.
    • Jumia Advertising is set up as an in-house advertising agency with dedicated marketing and advertising professionals. Leveraging the unique reach and data of the Jumia platform, Jumia Advertising aims to drive measurable results to brands and sellers, external advertising agencies and third-party advertisers. We offer them a comprehensive range of solutions, including sponsored product ads, sponsored display and CRM tools that can target consumers in a granular manner at different stages of their shopping journey.
  • Cost efficiencies
    • Our financial strategy seeks to balance robust topline growth and development of JumiaPay with growing monetization and cost efficiencies.
    • We are seeing very significant improvements in our Sales and Advertising efficiency. While delivering robust growth of topline drivers and usage of our platform, Sales & Advertising expense as a percentage of GMV decreased by 143 basis points (“bps”), from 6.1% of GMV in the third quarter of 2018 to 4.7% in the third quarter of 2019, reflecting the strong Jumia brand awareness, our discipline in terms of Sales & Advertising investments as well as the strong momentum of our offering among existing and new consumers.
    • Adjusted EBITDA loss as a percentage of GMV improved from negative 18.0% in the third quarter of 2018 to negative 16.5% in the third quarter of 2019.
  • Portfolio optimization
    • We regularly conduct portfolio reviews which assess the allocation of our resources to business verticals and geographies against multiple criteria, including financial performance, commercial environment as well as the ease and cost of doing business. As part of this year’s portfolio review, a number of initiatives are underway. We expect these initiatives to collectively account for less than 10% of our GMV, Gross profit and Operating loss for the 9-month period ending September 30, 2019.
    • These initiatives are aimed at enhancing our business focus and allocating investment, resources and talent to those areas that we believe present the best opportunities to support the Company’s long-term growth and path to profitability.

Selected Operational KPIs

1. Marketplace KPIs

2018

2019

Third Quarter

Third Quarter

GMV1 (€ million)

198.4

275.3

Annual Active Consumers2 (million)

3.5

5.5

Number of Orders3 (million)

3.6

7.0

1 GMV corresponds to the total value of orders for products and services including shipping feesvalue added tax and before deductions of any discounts or vouchers irrespective of cancellations or returns for the relevant period.

2 Annual Active Consumers means unique consumers who placed an order for a product or a service on our platform within the 12-month period preceding the relevant dateirrespective of cancellations or returns.

3 Number of Orders corresponds to the total number of orders for products and services on our platform irrespective of cancellations or returnsfor the relevant period.
  • GMV increased by 38.7% from €198 million in the third quarter of 2018 to €275 million in the third quarter of 2019, on the back of sustained volume growth on the platform. Comparisons between the third quarters of 2019 and 2018 and between the second and third quarters of 2019 are affected by changes in our commercial calendar dates, particularly the Jumia Anniversary campaign which is a Tier 1 campaign that took place in its entirety in the third quarter of 2018 while approximately half of it took place this year during the second quarter.
  • The number of Annual Active Consumers as of September 30, 2019, was 5.5 million, up from 3.5 million a year ago and up from 4.8 million at the end of the second quarter of 2019. This corresponds to a quarterly net addition of approximately 636 thousand consumers compared to a quarterly net addition of approximately 300 thousand consumers over the same period last year. This acceleration in consumer growth is a result of our continuous efforts to drive product and service offering relevance while consistently enhancing consumer experience at every touchpoint of the Jumia platform.
  • The number of Orders on our platform increased by 95.2% from 3.6 million in the third quarter of 2018 to 7.0 million in the third quarter of 2019. Our Orders growth outpaces GMV growth as a result of consumers purchasing increasing amounts of everyday product categories, which are typically lower average value items, on a more frequent basis. Over the 12-month period ending September 30, 2018, we had 3.5 million Annual Active Consumers placing on average 3.4 orders per annum, for an average value of €59.7 per order. Over the 12-month period ending September 30, 2019, we had 56% more consumers – 5.5 million Annual Active Consumers – placing on average 27% more orders – 4.3 orders per annum – for an average value of €46.5 per order. This reflects the ability of our platform to drive consumer adoption and more frequent usage.

2. JumiaPay KPIs

2018

2019

First
Quarter

Second
Quarter

Third
Quarter

Fourth
Quarter

First
Quarter

Second
Quarter

Third
Quarter

TPV1 (€ million)

2.2

7.1

16.4

29.1

20.7

26.0

32.0

JumiaPay Transactions2 (million)

0.1

0.2

0.6

1.2

1.3

1.8

2.1

1 Total Payment Volume corresponds to the total value of orders for products and services completed using JumiaPay including shipping fees, value-added tax, before any cashback, irrespective of cancellations or returns.

2 JumiaPay Transactions corresponds to the total number of orders for products and services completed using JumiaPay, irrespective of cancellations or returns.
  • TPV increased by 94.8% from €16 million in the third quarter of 2018 to €32 million in the third quarter of 2019 while JumiaPay Transactions grew by 262% over the same period. This led to an increase in the penetration of JumiaPay transactions on our platform, as JumiaPay TPV represented 11.6% of GMV in the third quarter of 2019, and JumiaPay transactions represented 30.6% of Orders placed on our platform, up from 16.5% a year ago.
  • The increase in JumiaPay penetration is driven by a combination of continuous education efforts of consumers on our platform, incentives such as capped cashbacks offered to consumers for the usage of JumiaPay, as well as the roll-out of JumiaPay to more geographies and Jumia properties. We also continued to add relevant digital services to consumers as part of our JumiaPay payment app.

Selected Financial Information

1. Revenue

The following table shows a breakdown of the revenue for the third quarters of 2018 and 2019.

For the three months ended September 30

YoY

(€ million)

2018

20191

Change

Marketplace revenue

12.5

18.9

52.1%

Commissions

4.2

5.3

27.5%

Fulfillment

4.0

7.3

82.2%

Marketing & Advertising

0.7

1.6

125.4%

Value-Added Services

3.6

4.7

32.9%

First Party revenue

20.5

20.9

1.8%

Platform revenue

33.0

39.8

20.8%

Non-Platform revenue

0.7

0.2

(64.1%)

Revenue

33.6

40.1

19.1%

1 Certain types of vouchers and consumer incentives were reclassified from Sales & Advertising to Revenue as further described in “Voucher and consumer incentives reclassification” below. The cumulative effect for the nine months ended September 302019 is included in the results for the three months ended September 30 2019. Results for the three months ended September 302018 have not been adjusted.
  • Marketplace revenue increased by 52.1% in the third quarter of 2019 compared to the third quarter of 2018, as we continue to drive monetization in parallel with increased usage of our platform.
    • Commissions, which are charged to our sellers, grew by 27.5%.
    • Fulfilment, which are delivery fees charged to consumers, grew by 82.2%.
    • Marketing & Advertising, which corresponds to the revenue generated from the sale of a diversified range of ad solutions to sellers and advertisers grew by 125.4%. The sustained momentum in this revenue stream shows the appetite from both sellers and advertisers for a compelling offer of digital advertising reaching a broad base of users, capable of driving measurable performance.
    • Value Added Services, which include revenue from services charged to our sellers such as logistics services, packaging, or content creation, grew by 32.9%.
  • First Party revenue increased by 1.8% in the third quarter of 2019 compared to the third quarter of 2018. We undertake our first party activity in an opportunistic manner to complement the breadth of product assortment on our platform, usually in areas where we see unmet consumer demand. Over time, it is our goal to reduce the proportion of first party activity in favor of third-party activity at the group level. This strategy may however vary from quarter to quarter and from country to country.
  • Shifts in the mix between first party and marketplace activities trigger substantial variations in our Revenue as we record the full sales price net of returns as First Party revenue and only commissions and fees in the case of Marketplace revenue. Accordingly, we steer our operations not on the basis of our total revenue, but rather on the basis of Gross profit, as changes between third-party and first-party sales mix are largely eliminated at the Gross profit level.

2. Gross Profit

For the three months
ended September 30

YoY

(€ million)

2018

2019

Change

Gross profit

12.5

18.1

45.0%

Gross profit increased by 45.0% from €12.5 million in the third quarter of 2018 to €18.1 million in the third quarter of 2019, as a result of increased platform monetization.

3. Fulfilment Expense

For the three months
ended September 30

YoY

(€ million)

2018

2019

Change

Fulfilment expense

13.3

20.7

55.4%

Fulfilment expense includes expenses related to services of third-party logistics providers, expenses related to our network of warehouses and pick-up stations, including employee benefit expenses. Fulfilment expense grew by 55.4% in the third quarter of 2019 compared to the third quarter of 2018.

Fulfilment expense is influenced by a number of factors including:

  • The origin of the goods, for example, the cost of shipping a product from a cross-border seller based overseas is higher than shipping from a local seller.
  • The destination of the package and type of delivery, for example main city vs. secondary city vs. rural area, and home delivery vs. pick-up station.
  • The type of goods, for example, the cost of delivery is higher for a large home appliance than a fashion accessory.

Fulfilment expense this quarter was impacted by a higher proportion of cross-border packages shipped from overseas sellers as well as a higher proportion of packages delivered outside primary cities. However, we continue to observe significant Fulfillment expense efficiencies as our order volumes grow.

4. Sales & Advertising Expense

For the three months
ended September 30

YoY

(€ million)

2018

20191

Change

Sales & Advertising expense

12.2

12.9

6.3%

1 Certain types of vouchers and consumer incentives were reclassified from Sales & Advertising to Revenue as further described in “Voucher and consumer incentives reclassification” below. The cumulative effect for the nine months ended September 302019 is included in the results for the three months ended September 30 2019. Results for the three months ended September 302018 have not been adjusted.

Our Sales & Advertising expense increased by 6.3% to €12.9 million in the third quarter of 2019 from €12.2 million in the third quarter of 2018, while we were able to increase our Active Consumers by 56.3% and our Orders by 95.2% over the same period.

5. General and Administrative Expense, Technology and Content Expense

For the three months
ended September 30

YoY

(€ million)

2018

2019

Change

General and Administrative (“G&A”) expense

22.5

32.7

45.4%

Share-Based Compensation (“SBC”) expense

(4.3)

(7.1)

67.1%

G&A expense, excluding SBC

18.2

25.6

40.3%

Technology & Content expense

5.3

7.0

31.4%

G&A, Technology & Content expense, excluding SBC

23.5

32.5

38.3%

General and Administrative expense contain wages and benefits, including share-based payment expense of management, as well as seller management, commercial development, accounting and legal staff, depreciation and amortization, professional fees, audit expense, utility cost, insurance and other overhead expense.

General and Administrative expense excluding SBC increased by 40.3% from €18.2 million in the third quarter of 2018 to €25.6 million in the third quarter of 2019, as a result of an increase in staff costs and professional fees.

Technology and Content expense increased by 31.4% from €5.3 million in the third quarter of 2018 to €7.0 million in the third quarter of 2019.

BUSINESS WIRE

Jumia Reports Q3 2019 Results: Marketplace revenue up 52% and Gross profit up 45% year-over-year

Brand Spur
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Jumia Reports Q3 2019 Results: Marketplace revenue up 52% and Gross profit up 45% year-over-year

JumiaPay Total Payment Volume up 95% and JumiaPay Transactions up 262% year-over-year

LAGOS, Nigeria -Jumia Technologies AG (NYSE: JMIA) (“Jumia” or the Company) announced today its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2019.

“We are making significant progress in the usage and relevance of our platform for consumers and sellers and are firmly positioning Jumia as the digital destination of choice for everyday needs in Africa. In parallel, we continue to make great strides in our payment and fintech business with JumiaPay showing very strong growth momentum on both volume and transaction metrics,” commented Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Jumia.

“Our financial strategy seeks to balance growth, JumiaPay development, monetization and cost efficiencies. We manage this equation on a dynamic basis and are now placing even greater emphasis on cash discipline and efficiency. Our growth strategy favours business verticals and product categories that drive adoption, repeat purchase and usage. On the cost efficiency front, we continuously seek to optimize our portfolio of assets and geographies to ensure efficient capital allocation. We are confident this strategy will enhance our focus on our core assets and contribute to building a healthy foundation for the long-term growth and success of Jumia.”

Business and Financial highlights

  • Growth momentum in topline drivers
    • We are focused on growing consumer adoption, usage and engagement on our platform. While our GMV increased by 39% this quarter compared to the third quarter of 2018, our Annual Active Consumers for the 12-month period ending September 30, 2019, grew by 56% and number of Orders for the quarter grew by 95% on a year-on-year basis.
    • The fastest-growing categories on our platform in terms of items sold are digital services offered on our JumiaPay mobile application, such as airtime recharge and utility bills payments, which are growing at triple digits, followed by Fast Moving Consumer Goods (“FMCG”), such as groceries and staples, which increased by 99% over the 9-month period ending September 30, 2019 compared to the same period last year. While these categories typically include lower average value items, we believe they drive strong engagement of our users and contribute to repeat purchases and increased consumer lifetime value, while providing consumers with an affordable entry point into our ecosystem.
    • In an effort to enhance our value proposition to sellers and consumers continuously, we have launched Jumia Mall in September 2019. Jumia Mall provides a dedicated space for brands or their official distributors to reach consumers through a customized e-shop with multiple services available to build their brand awareness and online sales performance. These services include marketing and visibility packages, business intelligence and data analytics as well as seamless logistics through the Jumia Express program. As of September 30, 2019, a couple of weeks after its launch, Jumia Mall was already home to approximately 50% of the top 100 Forbes consumer brands, which we believe is a strong validation of the relevance of Jumia as a platform of choice for brands.
  • Development of JumiaPay
    • JumiaPay remains a key focus area for us, and we aim to drive the adoption of Jumia Pay on our platform in a gradual manner, in order to expand into off-platform payments in the future.
    • Our Total Payment Volume (“TPV”) reached €32 million in the third quarter of 2019, up 95% from the same period last year. Our number of JumiaPay Transactions reached 2.1 million, up 262% from the same period last year, demonstrating robust traction of digital payments on our platform. In the third quarter of 2019, approximately 31% of Orders at Group level were settled via JumiaPay compared to 16% a year ago, demonstrating our ability to leverage the marketplace flywheel to drive the adoption of JumiaPay.
    • As of September 30, 2019, JumiaPay is available in six markets: Nigeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Morocco and Kenya. We continue to prepare the rollout into selected new markets in the near future.
    • Our financial services marketplace, which is part of JumiaPay, is a core element of our fintech ecosystem. Jumia Lending, which today acts as an intermediary between sellers on our platform and third-party financial institutions, is making great progress in driving financial inclusion and access to credit for SMEs. Jumia Lending is instrumental in the credit underwriting process, providing valuable business data to financial institutions to help pre-score the credit of our sellers. We typically take no credit risk and have no balance sheet exposure to such loans. As of September 30, 2019, Jumia Lending is available in the six countries where JumiaPay is active. Jumia Lending helped in the origination of approximately €5 million worth of loans to more than 770 sellers on our platform since its launch in early 2017. The average loan amount is around €3,200 for an average duration of 5 months.
  • Increased monetization
    • In parallel with driving topline growth and development of JumiaPay, Gross profit increased by 45% compared to the third quarter of 2018, while Marketplace revenue increased by 52% over the same period, demonstrating our ability to effectively drive monetization while sustaining robust growth of our platform. Driving revenue and gross profit is an important part of our strategy and a primary focus for us.
    • Our monetization strategy aims to create diversified revenue streams from transaction activity and usage of our platform, particularly through the monetization of services that enhance our sellers’ performance, such as Jumia Express or Jumia Advertising.
    • Jumia Advertising is set up as an in-house advertising agency with dedicated marketing and advertising professionals. Leveraging the unique reach and data of the Jumia platform, Jumia Advertising aims to drive measurable results to brands and sellers, external advertising agencies and third-party advertisers. We offer them a comprehensive range of solutions, including sponsored product ads, sponsored display and CRM tools that can target consumers in a granular manner at different stages of their shopping journey.
  • Cost efficiencies
    • Our financial strategy seeks to balance robust topline growth and development of JumiaPay with growing monetization and cost efficiencies.
    • We are seeing very significant improvements in our Sales and Advertising efficiency. While delivering robust growth of topline drivers and usage of our platform, Sales & Advertising expense as a percentage of GMV decreased by 143 basis points (“bps”), from 6.1% of GMV in the third quarter of 2018 to 4.7% in the third quarter of 2019, reflecting the strong Jumia brand awareness, our discipline in terms of Sales & Advertising investments as well as the strong momentum of our offering among existing and new consumers.
    • Adjusted EBITDA loss as a percentage of GMV improved from negative 18.0% in the third quarter of 2018 to negative 16.5% in the third quarter of 2019.
  • Portfolio optimization
    • We regularly conduct portfolio reviews which assess the allocation of our resources to business verticals and geographies against multiple criteria, including financial performance, commercial environment as well as the ease and cost of doing business. As part of this year’s portfolio review, a number of initiatives are underway. We expect these initiatives to collectively account for less than 10% of our GMV, Gross profit and Operating loss for the 9-month period ending September 30, 2019.
    • These initiatives are aimed at enhancing our business focus and allocating investment, resources and talent to those areas that we believe present the best opportunities to support the Company’s long-term growth and path to profitability.

Selected Operational KPIs

1. Marketplace KPIs

2018

2019

Third Quarter

Third Quarter

GMV1 (€ million)

198.4

275.3

Annual Active Consumers2 (million)

3.5

5.5

Number of Orders3 (million)

3.6

7.0

1 GMV corresponds to the total value of orders for products and services including shipping feesvalue added tax and before deductions of any discounts or vouchers irrespective of cancellations or returns for the relevant period.

2 Annual Active Consumers means unique consumers who placed an order for a product or a service on our platform within the 12-month period preceding the relevant dateirrespective of cancellations or returns.

3 Number of Orders corresponds to the total number of orders for products and services on our platform irrespective of cancellations or returnsfor the relevant period.
  • GMV increased by 38.7% from €198 million in the third quarter of 2018 to €275 million in the third quarter of 2019, on the back of sustained volume growth on the platform. Comparisons between the third quarters of 2019 and 2018 and between the second and third quarters of 2019 are affected by changes in our commercial calendar dates, particularly the Jumia Anniversary campaign which is a Tier 1 campaign that took place in its entirety in the third quarter of 2018 while approximately half of it took place this year during the second quarter.
  • The number of Annual Active Consumers as of September 30, 2019, was 5.5 million, up from 3.5 million a year ago and up from 4.8 million at the end of the second quarter of 2019. This corresponds to a quarterly net addition of approximately 636 thousand consumers compared to a quarterly net addition of approximately 300 thousand consumers over the same period last year. This acceleration in consumer growth is a result of our continuous efforts to drive product and service offering relevance while consistently enhancing consumer experience at every touchpoint of the Jumia platform.
  • The number of Orders on our platform increased by 95.2% from 3.6 million in the third quarter of 2018 to 7.0 million in the third quarter of 2019. Our Orders growth outpaces GMV growth as a result of consumers purchasing increasing amounts of everyday product categories, which are typically lower average value items, on a more frequent basis. Over the 12-month period ending September 30, 2018, we had 3.5 million Annual Active Consumers placing on average 3.4 orders per annum, for an average value of €59.7 per order. Over the 12-month period ending September 30, 2019, we had 56% more consumers – 5.5 million Annual Active Consumers – placing on average 27% more orders – 4.3 orders per annum – for an average value of €46.5 per order. This reflects the ability of our platform to drive consumer adoption and more frequent usage.

2. JumiaPay KPIs

2018

2019

First
Quarter

Second
Quarter

Third
Quarter

Fourth
Quarter

First
Quarter

Second
Quarter

Third
Quarter

TPV1 (€ million)

2.2

7.1

16.4

29.1

20.7

26.0

32.0

JumiaPay Transactions2 (million)

0.1

0.2

0.6

1.2

1.3

1.8

2.1

1 Total Payment Volume corresponds to the total value of orders for products and services completed using JumiaPay including shipping fees, value-added tax, before any cashback, irrespective of cancellations or returns.

2 JumiaPay Transactions corresponds to the total number of orders for products and services completed using JumiaPay, irrespective of cancellations or returns.
  • TPV increased by 94.8% from €16 million in the third quarter of 2018 to €32 million in the third quarter of 2019 while JumiaPay Transactions grew by 262% over the same period. This led to an increase in the penetration of JumiaPay transactions on our platform, as JumiaPay TPV represented 11.6% of GMV in the third quarter of 2019, and JumiaPay transactions represented 30.6% of Orders placed on our platform, up from 16.5% a year ago.
  • The increase in JumiaPay penetration is driven by a combination of continuous education efforts of consumers on our platform, incentives such as capped cashbacks offered to consumers for the usage of JumiaPay, as well as the roll-out of JumiaPay to more geographies and Jumia properties. We also continued to add relevant digital services to consumers as part of our JumiaPay payment app.

Selected Financial Information

1. Revenue

The following table shows a breakdown of the revenue for the third quarters of 2018 and 2019.

For the three months ended September 30

YoY

(€ million)

2018

20191

Change

Marketplace revenue

12.5

18.9

52.1%

Commissions

4.2

5.3

27.5%

Fulfillment

4.0

7.3

82.2%

Marketing & Advertising

0.7

1.6

125.4%

Value-Added Services

3.6

4.7

32.9%

First Party revenue

20.5

20.9

1.8%

Platform revenue

33.0

39.8

20.8%

Non-Platform revenue

0.7

0.2

(64.1%)

Revenue

33.6

40.1

19.1%

1 Certain types of vouchers and consumer incentives were reclassified from Sales & Advertising to Revenue as further described in “Voucher and consumer incentives reclassification” below. The cumulative effect for the nine months ended September 302019 is included in the results for the three months ended September 30 2019. Results for the three months ended September 302018 have not been adjusted.
  • Marketplace revenue increased by 52.1% in the third quarter of 2019 compared to the third quarter of 2018, as we continue to drive monetization in parallel with increased usage of our platform.
    • Commissions, which are charged to our sellers, grew by 27.5%.
    • Fulfilment, which are delivery fees charged to consumers, grew by 82.2%.
    • Marketing & Advertising, which corresponds to the revenue generated from the sale of a diversified range of ad solutions to sellers and advertisers grew by 125.4%. The sustained momentum in this revenue stream shows the appetite from both sellers and advertisers for a compelling offer of digital advertising reaching a broad base of users, capable of driving measurable performance.
    • Value Added Services, which include revenue from services charged to our sellers such as logistics services, packaging, or content creation, grew by 32.9%.
  • First Party revenue increased by 1.8% in the third quarter of 2019 compared to the third quarter of 2018. We undertake our first party activity in an opportunistic manner to complement the breadth of product assortment on our platform, usually in areas where we see unmet consumer demand. Over time, it is our goal to reduce the proportion of first party activity in favor of third-party activity at the group level. This strategy may however vary from quarter to quarter and from country to country.
  • Shifts in the mix between first party and marketplace activities trigger substantial variations in our Revenue as we record the full sales price net of returns as First Party revenue and only commissions and fees in the case of Marketplace revenue. Accordingly, we steer our operations not on the basis of our total revenue, but rather on the basis of Gross profit, as changes between third-party and first-party sales mix are largely eliminated at the Gross profit level.

2. Gross Profit

For the three months
ended September 30

YoY

(€ million)

2018

2019

Change

Gross profit

12.5

18.1

45.0%

Gross profit increased by 45.0% from €12.5 million in the third quarter of 2018 to €18.1 million in the third quarter of 2019, as a result of increased platform monetization.

3. Fulfilment Expense

For the three months
ended September 30

YoY

(€ million)

2018

2019

Change

Fulfilment expense

13.3

20.7

55.4%

Fulfilment expense includes expenses related to services of third-party logistics providers, expenses related to our network of warehouses and pick-up stations, including employee benefit expenses. Fulfilment expense grew by 55.4% in the third quarter of 2019 compared to the third quarter of 2018.

Fulfilment expense is influenced by a number of factors including:

  • The origin of the goods, for example, the cost of shipping a product from a cross-border seller based overseas is higher than shipping from a local seller.
  • The destination of the package and type of delivery, for example main city vs. secondary city vs. rural area, and home delivery vs. pick-up station.
  • The type of goods, for example, the cost of delivery is higher for a large home appliance than a fashion accessory.

Fulfilment expense this quarter was impacted by a higher proportion of cross-border packages shipped from overseas sellers as well as a higher proportion of packages delivered outside primary cities. However, we continue to observe significant Fulfillment expense efficiencies as our order volumes grow.

4. Sales & Advertising Expense

For the three months
ended September 30

YoY

(€ million)

2018

20191

Change

Sales & Advertising expense

12.2

12.9

6.3%

1 Certain types of vouchers and consumer incentives were reclassified from Sales & Advertising to Revenue as further described in “Voucher and consumer incentives reclassification” below. The cumulative effect for the nine months ended September 302019 is included in the results for the three months ended September 30 2019. Results for the three months ended September 302018 have not been adjusted.

Our Sales & Advertising expense increased by 6.3% to €12.9 million in the third quarter of 2019 from €12.2 million in the third quarter of 2018, while we were able to increase our Active Consumers by 56.3% and our Orders by 95.2% over the same period.

5. General and Administrative Expense, Technology and Content Expense

For the three months
ended September 30

YoY

(€ million)

2018

2019

Change

General and Administrative (“G&A”) expense

22.5

32.7

45.4%

Share-Based Compensation (“SBC”) expense

(4.3)

(7.1)

67.1%

G&A expense, excluding SBC

18.2

25.6

40.3%

Technology & Content expense

5.3

7.0

31.4%

G&A, Technology & Content expense, excluding SBC

23.5

32.5

38.3%

General and Administrative expense contain wages and benefits, including share-based payment expense of management, as well as seller management, commercial development, accounting and legal staff, depreciation and amortization, professional fees, audit expense, utility cost, insurance and other overhead expense.

General and Administrative expense excluding SBC increased by 40.3% from €18.2 million in the third quarter of 2018 to €25.6 million in the third quarter of 2019, as a result of an increase in staff costs and professional fees.

Technology and Content expense increased by 31.4% from €5.3 million in the third quarter of 2018 to €7.0 million in the third quarter of 2019.

BUSINESS WIRE

Seplat Announces Q3 2019 Interim Dividend Currency Exchange Rates

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Seplat Announces Q3 2019 Interim Dividend Currency Exchange Rates

Lagos and London, 12th November 2019: Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc (“Seplat” or the “Company”), a leading Nigerian independent oil and gas company listed on both the Nigerian Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange, today confirms that the following currency exchange rates will be applicable in determination of the Q3 2019 interim dividend payment to any shareholders that qualify for and have elected to receive the Q3 2019 interim dividend payment in Naira or GBP:

Exchange Rate

 1 USD = 306.40 Naira
 1 USD = 1.2831 GBP

The exchange rate for the Naira amounts payable was determined by reference to the exchange rates applicable to the US dollar available on 8th November 2019 (11th November previously announced was a public holiday in Nigeria) and the exchange rate for Pounds Sterling amounts payable was determined by reference to the exchange rates applicable to the US dollar available on 11th November 2019.

The closing date for Dividend currency election to the Company’s Registrars is 27th November 2019. In the absence of a qualifying Dividend currency election by shareholders to the appropriate Registrar, dividends will be paid in their default currency. Shareholders should refer to the Company’s announcement on 29th October 2019 for the definition of
default currencies and dividend currency election forms can be found on the company website at https://seplatpetroleum.com/investors/dividend.

Why Mathematics Is Critical To Economic Development

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Why Mathematics Is Critical To Economic Development

Mathematics education is the very foundation of society and the pillar of science and technology without which a nation can never become prosperous and economically independent.

This was the submission of Managing Director of Promasidor Nigeria Limited, Mr Anders Einarsson while speaking last weekend in Lagos, at the finals of season 5 of the Cowbellpedia Secondary Schools Mathematics Television Quiz Show sponsored by Cowbell Milk, the flagship brand of his company.

Einarsson further explained in a chat with newsmen that the importance of Mathematics in the life of individuals and nations cannot be overemphasised, adding that he was very impressed that the Cowbellpedia initiative has achieved its objective going by the record number of 56,073 participants that took the qualifying examination this year.

From Left to Right: Master Michael Enehizena, 2019 Cowbellpedia Junior category champion; Mr Anders Einarsson, Managing Director of Promasidor Nigerian Limited and Master Oghenero Ologe, 2019 Cowbellpedia Senior category champion after the finals of the Cowbellpedia Mathematics competition in Lagos last weekend.

This according to him, is a huge testament to the Cowbellpedia initiative and the interest that Nigerians have in Mathematics. “I am convinced that with the arrays of talents displayed by these young Nigerians here today, Nigeria can rule the world. I advise the youth to continue to sustain their interest in Mathematics because the future is theirs,” he said.

He maintained that Promasidor has found a correlation between the development of cognitive ability that Cowbell Our Milk, gives, and its passion for Nigeria.

Also speaking at the event, Mr Stephen Adebunmi, who represented the Acting Registrar of the NECO, Mr AbubakarGana, explained that since Mathematics is very central to human and nation’s capacity, the subject deserves all the support from the public and private organisations.

The NECO boss commended Promasidor for providing “an excellent platform” to showcase these young Nigerian Mathematicians and future inventors.

Meanwhile, in a thrilling Cowellpedia Mathematics competition final encounter last weekend, Michael Enehizena of The Scholars Universal Secondary School, Ota, Ogun State and Oghenero Ologe of Zionfield Pinnacle School, Ikorodu, Lagos State won the crown in the Junior and Senior category respectively.

Also in the Junior category, Abdul-Quayum Alli, of Ota Total Academy, Ota, Ogun State, and David Charles of Graceland International Secondary, School, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, came second and third respectively.

Akinyemi Dabira of The Ambassadors College, Ota, Ogun State and Hezekiah Olabisi of BiboOluwa Academy, Ilesha, Osun emerged as first and second runner-up respectively in the Senior category.

The two champions got N2 million each and an all-expense-paid education excursion outside the country.

The first and second runners-up in each category received N1.5 million and N1 million respectively, while the teachers of the top prize winners were awarded N500, 000. Those of the first and second runners-up received N400, 000 and N300, 000 respectively.

Azura Power Invests In Tobene Power In Senegal, Brings Together Actis, Azura’s Majority Shareholder, With Africa50

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Azura Power Invests In Tobene Power In Senegal, Brings Together Actis, Azura’s Majority Shareholder, With Africa50

The 115MW Tobene Power plant in Senegal, which was part of the Melec Power Gen (“MPG”) portfolio now forms part of Azura Power’s pan-African power generation platform. The new investment in Tobene also brings together Actis, Azura Power’s majority shareholder, with Africa50.

Actis and Africa50 are committed to working with stakeholders to complete the conversion of the plant, to be fuelled by gas. Azura Power, together with Africa50, will also invest in the remaining assets in the MPG portfolio over time; and Africa50 is also expected to invest in future projects undertaken by Azura Power.

Azura Power’s CEO, Alan Muir, commented “We are delighted to be making this investment in the Tobene Power Plant to help drive our growth in thermal power plants in Africa. A key part of the investment strategy for Azura is to convert the Tobene plant from HFO to gas, as part of Senegal’s Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE), in order to drive down the cost of power as well as improve the environmental impact of the plant”.

Adrian Mucalov, Partner at Actis, commented “We have invested over US$1billion across Africa in the electricity sector and we are deeply committed to the continent. We take our responsibility to the countries, cities and communities in which we operate extremely seriously and we are excited to be investing in a business that will directly contribute to the economic growth of Senegal.”

Raza Hasnani, Head of Infrastructure Investments at Africa50 commented “We are very excited to make this investment in Senegal’s power sector. It underlines our strong commitment to Senegal’s progress, and we believe that our platform is well-positioned to drive the conversion of the plant to gas.”

OPPO Mobile, Toke Makinwa Partner to Launch Reno2 Series Smartphones in Nigeria (Photos)

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OPPO Mobile, Toke Makinwa Partner to Launch Reno2 Series Smartphones in Nigeria (Photos)

To unveil the high-end Reno2 Series, OPPO Mobile Nigeria recently announced a brand partnership with Nigeria’s leading fashion and style entrepreneur, media personality and acclaimed writer, Toke Makinwa on its Social Media pages.

Speaking about this partnership, the Marketing Manager, OPPO Mobile Nigeria, Nengi Akinola emphasised that the partnership with Toke Makinwa, is in line with the OPPO DNA of beauty and technology and just like the sleek and unique designs of OPPO Products, Toke Makinwa will help communicate unique OPPO’s style and design with the OPPO Reno2 Series.

Below is a sneak-peek to the photography capacity of the Reno2 Series, as captured by popular celebrity photographer, Anny Robert.

 

OPPO Mobile, Toke Makinwa Partner to Launch Reno2 Series Smartphones in Nigeria Brandspur
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The Reno2 isn’t just great at only photography, its excels at videography too, packing the features only high-end professional equipment possess and providing them in a sleek and portable smartphone. Toke Makinwa will also be showing the video-shooting and editing capabilities of the Reno2 Series with her popular Vlog.

The new OPPO Reno2 Series smartphones will be available for purchase on Jumia and at accredited dealerships nationwide from the 18th of November, 2019. The RRP is N179,900 (8BG+256GB) for the Reno2 and N129,900 for the Reno2F (8GB+128GB). Covered by OPPO Care’s 2-year warranty policy.

Nigeria’s Interswitch Confirms $1B Valuation after Visa Investment

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Nigeria’s Interswitch Confirms $1B Valuation after Visa Investment

Nigerian digital payments firm Interswitch confirmed today it has reached unicorn status after Visa acquired a minority equity stake in the firm.

“The investment makes Interswitch one of the most valuable African fintech businesses with a valuation of $1 billion,” Interswitch said in a release to TechCrunch.

The Visa investment could create the first of two market distinctions for Interswitch — as it shouldn’t change the Lagos based company’s plans to go public.

“An IPO is still very much in the cards; likely sometime in the first half of 2020,” a source with knowledge of the situation told TechCrunch on the background.

Interswitch did not reveal the amount of Visa’s investment and would not confirm Sky News reporting Monday that pegged it at $200 million for 20%.

Whatever the exact number, Interswitch’s confirmation of a $1 billion valuation marks another milestone in African tech.

Only one VC backed startup, turned the later-stage company on the continent — e-commerce venture Jumia — has generated enough revenue and capital to achieve a ten-figure valuation.

For the near to medium-term, Interswitch could stand as Africa’s sole tech-unicorn, since Jumia’s volatile share-price and declining market-cap since an April IPO have dropped the company’s worth below $1 billion (for now).

Founded in 2002 by Mitchell Elegbe, Interswitch pioneered the infrastructure to digitize Nigeria’s then predominantly paper-ledger and cash-based economy.

The company now provides much of rails for Nigeria’s online banking system that serves Africa’s largest economy and population. Interswitch offers a number of personal and business finance products, including its Verve payment cards and Quickteller payment app.

From its home-base of Nigeria Interswitch has expanded its physical presence to Uganda, Gambia and Kenya.

Interswitch also sells its products in 23 African countries and launched a partnership in August for its Verve cardholders to make payments on Discover’s global network.

Visa and Interswitch are touting the equity investment as a strategic collaboration between the two companies, without a lot of detail on what that will mean.

“The partnership will create an instant acceptance network across Africa to benefit consumers and merchants,” was the characterization offered in a press release.

Interswitch’s imminent IPO has been delayed for several years. CEO and founder Mitchell Elegbe told TechCrunch, “a dual-listing on the London and Lagos stock exchange is an option on the table,” in a January 2016 call.

In subsequent years, Elegbe and other Interswitch executives named Nigeria’s recession as a reason for the delay.

A number of stories have surfaced, including Bloomberg News reporting in July, that the company was poised to go public on the LSE.

TechCrunch’s source close to the matter offered the latest indication that Interswitch will list on a major exchange by mid-2020.

With possible exits for backers Helios Investment Partners, TA Investments and IFC, Interswitch’s unicorn status and pending IPO could create more momentum for startup investment in Africa. VC to the continent has grown significantly over the last 5 years, but stands at just over $1 billion annually, per Partech numbers.

Interswitch could also be in a stronger position to offer more capital directly to the continent’s fintech startups by reviving its ePayment Growth Fund. The venture arm made two investments in 2015 but then went largely quiet.

Source: Tech Crunch

The Impact Of Brand Ambassadors On SEO

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The Impact Of Brand Ambassadors On SEO

To put it simply, brand ambassadors are people who go out of their way to spread information about your company through word of mouth, friendly advertising, and other casual formats in a way that plays off of the age-old saying, “People trust people, not companies.”

At the end of the day, all SEO can be boiled down to building trust. Granted, SEO agents typically try to build trust within a search engine, but the analogy is accurate enough. By hiring a brand ambassador to represent your company, you can gain the following benefits to your existing SEO strategies.

Improved Consumer Engagement

The more people engage with your content, the better the analytics and the higher the ranking on the search engines. When people share, mention, or otherwise interact with your content, that content climbs the ranks of most search engines like rungs on a ladder.

Whereas SEO agents typically excel at creating digital progress for marketing campaigns, they sometimes fall short of hitting interpersonal goals, missing out on events and otherwise letting opportunities slip through their fingertips. That’s because those less successful SEO agents are only creating and sharing content, not creating relationships with their followers.

Through the use of a brand ambassador, you can personalize your company and increase user engagement through a process of looking more human. This increased engagement then leads to increased views and interactions with content, which in turn boosts the value of your company’s links.

Increased Brand Recognition

A large part of SEO is brand recognition. Many SEO companies spend countless hours trying to improve brand recognition by recruiting writers and publishing additional content with the optimal keywords, internal links, external links, links here, links there, links everywhere! But what happens when that stops being cost-effective?

In those cases, brand ambassadors can be called upon to get your company out of the slump. One such practice involves contracting trade show models through an event staffing agency to staff various events around the city, state, country, or world, depending on the size and scope of your marketing campaign.

Through the use of indirect and direct sales tactics, these models can then use word of mouth and other strategies to drive more people to your existing content, increasing traffic to those links, and boosting their strength.

Increased Content Penetration

In the world of marketing, a brand’s penetration rate refers to the brand’s success in a given market. For example, if your firm were to have a 50% penetration rate in Florida, that would mean that 50% of consumers in Florida have purchased your goods or services.

The primary purpose of a brand ambassador is to live and breathe your brand. That means that they’ll be sharing your content, spreading your name around, and otherwise sending people your way. This can be done through any variety of ways, each of which with its own pros and cons.

However, many practices in use among brand ambassadors involved content distribution, which increases shareability, a key factor in converting a viewer to a client. The more people who see your product, the larger the pool of potential clients. The larger pool of clients, the higher your website ranks on most search engines.

Increased Link Generation

Even when standard link-building operations are still proving successful for SEO purposes, brand ambassadors can continue to improve rankings. One of the most common adages in the world of sales is that “people love to buy but hate being sold to.” Brand ambassadors seek to personalize sales pitches in a way that enables them to sell without “selling to.”

Brand ambassadors can generate content that reads as more of a testimonial than a targeted advertisement, leading to increased shareability of the content. If you’ve ever seen a Facebook post that leads with “I’m a surgeon and my patients always ask me,” then chances are you’ve seen a brand ambassador in action.

Next time you come across one of those sponsored posts, check out how many shares, retweets, or reblogs it has. It should come as no surprise to hear that people prefer sharing interesting stories rather than sharing advertisements.

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