Online Stammtisch München 4.0 is a networking event, where you have a possibility to meet the professionals from companies that deal online.

This time, the OSM takes place on Thursday 06.10.2011 at 19:30 in Reithalle München (Heßstr. 132, Munich). You will find deal united there too!

Come and see us at the OSM 4.0. We’ll be happy to surprise you with our business opportunities!

deal united and PAY.ON AG cooperate to market their payment services internationally. In cooperating, both companies optimise their services and manifest their global coverage.

PAY.BY.SHOPPING is now connected to the PAY.ON gateway PayPipe and fully integrated into the platform PaySourcing. The two systems enable payment providers like PSPs through a single interface global online payment processing as well as access to the biggest network of connectors and payment schemes worldwide. For deal united, this cooperation offers great potential to find new business partners and the opportunity to promote their product extensively. By connecting the international payment method PAY.BY.SHOPPING, PAY.ON extends its services with a further payment scheme for payment providers worldwide.

Markus Wiedemann, Head of Sales Europe at deal united, says: “We are very lucky to have won the perfect technical partner for our national and international expansion. With PAY.ON, PAY.BY.SHOPPING can be integrated by merchants much faster and easier. We offer merchants an alternative payment method, which considerably increases conversion rates.”

For PAY.ON, Nikolaus von Taysen, member of the executive committee, comments: “We are happy to have deal united on board. We support our cooperation partners in their global market penetration and enable them access to international payment providers, whom they can then employ as resellers of their payment method. With PAY.BY.SHOPPING we add yet another intelligent and extraordinary payment scheme to our portfolio. The concept is easy to understand and an excellent alternative to conventional payment options. We look forward to a successful cooperation.”

Tengelmann and previous investors have invested in deal united to push ahead the expansion of the Munich-based payment specialist.

deal united has successfully concluded a second round of financing. In addition to the lead investor Tengelmann E-Commerce Beteiligungs GmbH, the existing investors Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments in corporation with KFW Bankengruppe, High-Tech Gründerfonds and Venture Incubator have also joined the series B financing round. The new proceeds will be used to further fuel the already existing global brand awareness.

Since the beginning of the year deal united has more than doubled its turnover in comparison with the previous year. Dr. Jarg Temme, CEO and co-founder of deal united says: “The demand for alternative payment options is significant. With PAY.BY.SHOPPING deal united has discovered a need which opens up new potential for more growth worldwide. We want to use the financing round to invest in new staff to handle the rising demand for our alternative payment method.”

Christian Winter, CEO of Tengelmann E-Commerce Beteiligungs GmbH is convinced of the PAY.BY.SHOPPING concept. “That, what distinguishes deal united is the ability to offer an added value payment method for all parties participating. The modern concept as well as the ambitious team behind deal united has impressed us. We are glad to join deal united’s expansion.”

Romy Schnelle, Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds adds: “We are pleased to again take part in the positive development of deal united with our financial backing. Furthermore we are glad to have won with Tengelmann another renown investor.”

Speak to global users in their monetary language

from deal united by Jürgen Weichert

Digital and virtual goods have several huge benefits from a business perspective.

A) They can be replicated with almost no variable cost.
B) They can be distributed all across the globe via the internet.

These points are great because they provide us with a powerful lever for scale. The idea of placing your product in front of a global audience and being able to deliver this product digitally is extremely compelling. I know I’m stating the obvious — this is why we are all in this business.

But (why does there always have to be a “but”?) it also confronts us with new challenges. The challenge is LOCALIZATION. Zynga, the social gaming giant from San Francisco, has launched their new game “CityVille.” It’s the first game that Zynga localized into several languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish. But the localization goes further than just translation — CityVille’s French version allows the user to build an Eiffel Tower in his city. Even objects and surroundings are customized to the local user.

The same has been done by software publishers for many years.

But here’s the catch: so far, many big players in the gaming, software and digital media space put a lot of effort into translating their products. They even go the extra mile and add local relevant content. But too many stop at the point where a corporation should be paying close attention: monetization.

Payment preferences across the globe

You can’t assume that credit cards will do the trick across the globe, as many countries don’t have a relevant credit card distribution. Germany, for example, has a credit card distribution of about 20 million cards but a population of 83 million — most with plenty of buying power.

With this in mind, there are two options:

1) Wait until global credit card distribution increases
2) Offer local payment options

We recommend the latter. Why? Payment markets change slowly, and it is not wise to leave money on the table.

But how do I prioritize the integration of local payment options? Every country with a major online market has one, two or even three dominant methods of payment besides credit cards. Germany has bank transfers, the Netherlands use IDEAL, France uses Carte Bleue, Danish users like to pay with DanKard, Japan offers a range of convenience store payments and so on.

Of course, nobody can integrate everything at once. So the first thing to do is analyze data and prioritize according to three main criteria:

1) How many users do I have, and what countries are they from?
2) Are these countries tier 1 (U.S., UK, Germany, France, Japan…), tier 2 (Italy, Spain…) or tier 3 countries?
3) How time consuming would it be to conduct business after sorting my data according to the first two criteria?

How can I stay fast and efficient?

Well, of course it makes sense to use payment service providers (PSPs) and eCommerce Service Providers (ESPs). They’ve already done the work and integrated all these payment options. We can only recommend taking a look at the PSPs/ESPs on the market and analyzing whether they cover the regional payment options relevant to your user base. Also take a look at your future plans. There may be regions with expansion potential. The PSP should have links to these regions and be able to offer payment options in these areas. Because no matter what the sales guy says, integration with a PSP is a one-time effort — you shouldn’t have to repeat this often.

Expect neutrality from your PSP

A good PSP/ESP is a consultant for payment strategy. Hence, they must be neutral. Make sure that your PSP/ESP does not run payment as a side business.

In the meantime, it makes sense to complement your payment mix with PAY.BY.SHOPPING. Our payment service is completely localized, carrying relevant local advertisers on a global scale. What’s more, our local advertisers in each country offer your users the relevant payment options for their market.

(I hope you can excuse the shameless plug.)

Questions? Drop us an email at merchant@dealunited.com

Cheers,

Juergen

The  Game Connection Europe networking event will take place in Lyon, France from November 16- 18, 2010.

Attendees will have the opportunity to meet key players from every stage of the production process face-to-face, including professionals in finance, development, publishing, distribution and outsourcing.

This year, deal united Sales Managers Eliane Zeba and Melanie Richter will attend this event and present deal united’s alternative payment method PAY.BY.SHOPPING.

For further information, please contact merchant@dealunited.com

How to Effectively Integrate PAY.BY.SHOPPING  into online games and virtual worlds

From deal united by Jürgen Weichert

Offer walls, by definition, attract users with the promise of getting virtual currency without having to spend money. They may be asked to fill out a survey, watch a video or provide personal information in return for the free currency. While this promise is attractive, there is a catch: one party will always lose. Often, users are scammed with fraudulent offers as their information is sold to third parties or their credit cards are charged with hidden fees (see http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/18/free-posters-aka-scamville-its-back/). Sometimes it’s the advertisers who get betrayed, losing tons of advertising money when users register with fake email addresses or don’t fill out their surveys correctly.

PAY.BY.SHOPPING from deal united is different. Unlike offer walls, we openly and honestly provide a service that involves spending money — as indicated in the name. How do you pay? By shopping. End users can pay for virtual goods by shopping at their favorite online stores — which they like doing anyway — and making a purchase. The deal is that customers get both, but only spend money on one.

The benefit of the model is that real value is created through the purchase. In conjunction with the clear communication around PAY.BY.SHOPPING, it encourages fair behavior. It’s fair to the merchant (game) because the payout is a multiple of the offer walls’ payouts and provides reliable results. It’s fair to the users because they get fair deals at their favorite online stores, and it’s fair to the advertisers because they get new, paying customers. Our extremely high customer satisfaction scores support our theory in every day practice.

A huge portion of users already buy physical products online from well-known brands, like our advertisers, and know what to expect: quality products, safe payment options, great selection of goods. What does that mean for a successful integration? Inform your users of PAY.BY.SHOPPING deals, and they’ll keep coming back.

Ideally, PAY.BY.SHOPPING is presented on websites as an alternative to regular payment options or offer walls. A clear separation from traditional payment options and offer walls helps the user to differentiate between them and allows the online game or virtual world to generate the highest ARPPU.

If merchants (games) want to skip the integration effort, deal united offers the Offer Wall Converter. With the Offer Wall Converter, deal united is compatible with all third party offer wall API’s. Hence, the integration effort is close to zero.

That just leaves one question: what to do with the existing offer wall integrations? We can only recommend that you screen the offers carefully and force your offer wall provider to discontinue offers you deem inadequate for your audience and your business. The one major thing to avoid is the loss of players due to dishonest or fraudulent offers.

If you think this blog is biased, you’re right, but that doesn’t mean we’re wrong. Call us. Challenge us. We look forward to fruitful discussions.

Contact merchant@dealunited.com or call +49 (0) 89 381 640 360

The Virtual Goods Summit West 2010 will take place at the Moscone West Conference Hall in San Francisco on October 12th and 13th. Several experts will present and discuss the future of virtual goods.

deal united is a sponsor for the event, which Jürgen Weichert (CSO), Daniel Shefer (Head of US Business Development) and Torsten Bongartz (Senior Sales Manager) will attend. If you’d like to meet with them, please visit our booth No. 11 or to make an appointment beforehand, contact merchant@dealunited.com or call +1 (650) 241-9120 (USA) /+49 (0) 89 381 535 860 (Germany).

Vacation season holds the same value for eCommerce as for offline retail nowadays: it’s a lucrative opportunity for both to generate more sales. But what about software vendors, game publishers and online services? How can they benefit from the summer cash flow? With deal united’s PAY.BY.SHOPPING, they can offer software or virtual currency free of  charge for users who shop at deal united advertising partners’ online stores. When a user makes  purchase at one of the stores, their “free” product is refunded to the merchant by the advertising partner from whom the user purchased.  With the wide product range our partners offer, users can choose frmo a great selection of items for holidays, summer and traveling.

The benefits of PAY.BY.SHOPPING by deal united:

• Incremental Revenue: Use the internet-shoppers willingness to pay during the holiday season
• Monetization: Address users directly with attractive offers and create real turnover!
• Seasonal Event: Benefit from the holiday season, even if your products / sector has nothing to do with it
• No Additional Marketing or Advertising Costs
• International Orientation: deal united is available in many countries and regions throughout Europe and the US.

These companies already cooperate with deal united

For further information check out www.dealunited.com/merchants and register free of charge or contact us at merchant@dealunited.com.

Games Convention Online 2010 in Leipzig, Germany: On July 8, deal united shows game publishers how they can increase conversion rates with cross selling.

How can you make more money with online games? Jarg Temme, deal united CEO, answers this question at this year’s Games Convention Online (GCO) in Leipzig. He’ll show game publishers how to increase conversion with cross-selling in his lecture “Online games and successful conversion.”

Pay4You: Online Shops Give Away Virtual Money

deal united, the reward platform for monetization of virtual goods, develops cross-selling campaigns for game publishers with renowned advertising partners like OTTO and myToys.de. If players shop at one of those partners’ online stores and buy something, they get a certain amount of virtual money free of charge. “Our advertising partners reimburse the game provider for the free product. Every player that comes into the shop via one of the online games and makes a purchase gets free virtual currency as a bonus from the online shops,” explains Jarg Temme, deal united CEO. “Pay4You campaigns are designed to increase player loyalty and game revenue.”

“The fact that most gamers do not want to invest money in games is a challenge every provider faces today, “Temme says. “Gamers are used to free deals, and despite the fact that the game would be more fun, they do not want to spend money on additional features for their characters. Our cooperation with renowned online shops helps to motivate players to pay for those features.”

Gamers find out about deals via in-game messages, pop-unders, banners and buttons. Pay4You is suitable for seasonal events as well as for long term campaigns. “Special promotions for Mother’s Day or right now for the football World Cup are very popular. Game publishers always freely determine how long their campaigns and cooperations with our advertising partners should run,” says Temme.

Arrange Interviews at GCO

The lecture „Online games and successful conversion“ will be held on July 8, 2010 from 2:30 to 3 p.m. in Leipzig’s congress center, room No. 4. The Games Convention Online 2010 takes place from July 8-10 at the exhibition centre. To interview or meet with Jarg Temme at the event, please contact info@dealunited.com to make an appointment.

Juergen Weichert, CSO at deal united, will attend the Web Game Conference on the April 29, 2010 in the frenche capital Paris. The conference was initiated by Owlient, a leader in European browser games, and brings together leaders and innovators from the web game industry who come to discuss, collaborate and share advancements in various aspects of social and browser games, such as design, business and community.

Weichert will take part in a panel focusing on Payment Gateways: which payment gateways and solutions work best to monetize your audience, together with Gilles Tannugi (Allopass) and Wim Jagtenberg (Wallie) at 14:55.

To meet with Jürgen Weichert at the Web Game Conference in Paris, please contact us at info@dealunited.com or +49 (0) 89 381 649 360, or visit our home page at www.dealunited.com.