What's the last thing developers think of? | Chris Meredith from Xsolla

[Music] we're now joined by Chris Meredith from exola how you doing today very well thank you enjoying the enjoying the rain and the Sunshine so well see this kind of weather we come from the UK this is just a Tuesday over here National crisis very normal but a very different situation so we're delighted you made it in and everyone's made it today too we were expecting crickets frankly given the weather situation very much so no it's you've got a good attendance today it this there's still a nice Buzz here there's a lot of energy about the place and I really like that people can work together on that so it's a great thing to have well only your second show but we are we are pleased with how it's turned out it's lovely to mix with it's why we take this thing abroad anyway different communities different places and those kind of relations of what you folks are about isn't it if people haven't experienced exola what is it the company does absolutely happy to talk to you about that and I'm glad you asked um so we're a a global video game um Commerce company um we offer services to help devel velers and Publishers

monetize their products and get to Market in the most Optimum way um and with the biggest Market reach right what about you specifically what's your role at the company so my role is it's it's quite simple really I say my role is to connect people so the connection point from me to my staff and those guys to the developing Community connecting with games connecting our solutions to those games and then connecting all of those to The Gamers who in turn then make the community that we then connect with so exola is absolutely connected all the way line through the line there and I think that's the value of what I do is make sure those connection points work and make sure that all of those things come together well I've seen you talking in previous interviews about the necessity for a direct to Consumer approach yes what do you mean by that I think as we now as the market matures the the opportunities now to be able to hit your consumer directly is where the ual value is going to be because

ultimately a lot of the traditional root to Market didn't allow you to have an interface with your consumer but now the ability to be able to work direct with those guys understand their needs understand what they want to do really cultivate a relationship you only can do that by a direct relationship with the actual urine user and exola is all about that we're all about making sure that we build from the ground up we have interfaced with all of the developing the developer communities in regards to they're doing but fundamentally making sure that our customers the developers and the Publishers can have that opportunity to interface with the actual end consumer that they've got for a sustainable monetization um strategy that is really getting to be the most pivotable point in business these days what does a personalized relationship look like in modern what we we've had an issue where it was all about data everything is about data and electrics were gathered and you could gather information about the users as well as

potential clients and things uh the app stores have shut themselves down a little bit of late for legal reasons so you can't gather as many data points as you used to be able to yeah um so people are finding other ways to try and interact directly with them is it simply a case of for your case like addressing clients asking them what they want asking them what they're looking for or are there other ways to really kind of personalize your approach to each individual as in any relationship you have to actually work and build the foundations and the ability to communicate and have the knowledge of that the the person you're working with is key to that and what we are what we do is make sure that our relationships from the ground up are all about what do you need what do you need to be successful how can we help you be successful we have a variety of tools in regards to the solutions we provide for that and we work intrinsically um together with the um with our with our customers to make sure that they have the best off Springs so that

relationship is like any relationship it takes time it takes effort and it's built over a period of time so making sure that we understand that and here in the mea there are lots of challenges localization challenges diversification we have to be relevant to that and we're putting a lot of time a lot of effort a lot of investment into mea because we believe this has the foundation point for real growth in the future the interesting thing also about this territory is the fact that it's it's new so there's no baggage of history in regards to some of the challenges we face in other parts of Europe and um around the world that provides us with Clarity of pure offering we don't have to circumvent we don't have to go through anything and every conversation I've had here is about the opportunity going forward how does that look how does that work for you and we are really pleased to continue growing our support within this region um we've got a new Academy that's open recently we're off an office in

Riad we've got a standalone person here now to actually be the Forefront of those Communications and those are really important things for us to make sure that we and we invest in the foundation points not only the territory but the influx of companies and organizations coming into this territory well what are the difficulties of effectively taking your business over into different regions and being well for one respectful of local Customs additions what people want um but also the unique demands of the customers in the area what kind of things do you have to make sure you get right when you are branching out in this way so as an organization we're used to fragmentation and in Europe mea over 200 countries 300 languages various things going on right now so we have to be ATT tuned at a local level so everything is about what is happening on the local side in regards to what products and services we can actually bring to them so it's that understanding to make sure that we can be part of their Journey because the

real Synergy is we only benefit when my partners benefit in regards to driving their revenues through the products they create so along the way we want to make sure we provide best practice best Services make sure we are relevant to all the issues that may be in the in their particular territory make sure they are compliant Merchant a record is what we do as part of our offering for that as well so it's it's all about the sum of the parts but the sum of the parts all starts with the relationship and the understanding you have with your customer and that can be from a large organization mid-tier or the developer Community here that is growing exponentially in regards to what and that's not only people coming from this territory but it's also about the people that are coming into this territory as well we're seeing a migration of some very large Publishers now having a standalone position here working together with the the the green belt new developers who are coming together with that so it's old new in some ways which

I think is really exciting and we want to be very much centered to that we want to be around those relationships and we want to help drive this industry there's there's the the future you're right is is very much data driven in regards to understanding that particularly now with AI so we are very relevant to bringing all of those parts together with the services and solutions we have but also making sure that they work for our customers work for our clients in a way that is going to be beneficial for them and that that understanding is really key in terms of getting that across well what do you find that Publishers developers what are they asking for most from you I feel like the the beginning of the industry certainly the mobile industry was all about UA it was all about grabbing as many users as you possibly could and now I hear more and more it's not as much about that it's about retention it's about keeping the people you have rather than the churn is that reflected um I would I would absolutely agree with that I think the I would turn that as a sort

of the whole goto Market strategy um developers historically it's the last thing they've thought about what's the monetization tra I've built the game that's what I focused on of just building the game now as I talked to guys this is about not only have you got to be able to build the game you've got to understand what your go-to Market strategy is because that's the sustainability of your customer base and your future and on top of that you've got to really understand and know what monetization means to you to your investors and to the customers you've got through that particular particular game we think we can help across all of those parameters we have capabilities not only at the development in we have a new solution go XP which is basically a backend solution that works with developers to help them get to Market in a very efficient Smart Way ultimately everything we do in terms of the goto Market our Solutions our web shops um our pce our pce Solutions in Europe and within the EM we have over 700 pay Solutions which is pretty much more than

anywhere else in the world to be able to do that but that shows the need for those because of the fragmentation in there but you have to have that if you're going to be relevant to the guys at the local level so it is all about choice but is on making sure that they have every choice they need and every capability to be successful from the services and the solutions we have so it goes hand in hand and I'm I'm this relationship is goes to the dating process and we hope then the marriage can lasts for us as long as it possibly can and we have a lot of customers that we've been with for years and years and years um so that relationship is built on trust is built on results and it's a built on the fact that what in Innovations we are doing and bringing to market the first people we talk to are our customers about that to make sure they are align with what we are bringing together to the market so that we can be successful together fantastic Chris thank you for t with me today my pleasure thank you so much for your time [Music]