Phorm Corporation Limited: Global Operations Update


SINGAPORE--(Marketwired - Jun 27, 2014) -

Phorm Corporation Limited
("Phorm" or the "Company")

Global Operations Update
Revenue and KPIs Growing Strongly

Phorm (AIM: PHRM), a leading internet personalisation technology company, announces an unaudited operational and financial update demonstrating that the group's revenues and key performance indicators (KPIs) are continuing to grow strongly.

Highlights:

  • Peak daily unique user numbers have increased 44 times from approximately 838,000 in H1 2013 to in excess of 30 million in H1 2014

  • Advertising requests have increased 35 times from approximately 1.6 billion in H1 2013 to approximately 60 billion in H1 2014

  • Advertising impressions served have increased 35 times from approximately 63 million in H1 2013 to over 2.3 billion in H1 2014
    Revenue has grown by more than 14 times year-on-year, H1 2013 versus H1 2014*

  • Monthly revenue from January to May 2014 has grown by over 300%

  •  Revenue growth is expected to accelerate significantly in H2 2014, following the recent growth in user numbers and advertising requests

On 24 October 2013, Phorm announced that it had experienced strong growth in its KPIs and on 27 January 2014 further announced that it had launched commercial operations in China. The Company is pleased to announce that the group's strong growth trend in revenue and other KPIs is continuing.

Key Performance Indicator H1 2013 H2 2013 H1 2014* Yr-on-Yr
Peak Daily Unique Users (m) 0.8 14.1 37.8 44x
Total Advertising Requests (bn) 1.6 22.3 59.9 35x
Total Advertisements Served (m) 63.0 777.8 2,328.6 35x
Total Revenues (US$'000s) 28.5 251.2 >400.0 14x

Note:
* Total revenues for H1 2014 are for the five-month period to 31 May 2014 i.e. excluding June 2014. Users, Advertising Requests and Advertisements Served are for the period from 1 January 2014 to 19 June 2014

As outlined in the Company's 2013 Annual Report published today, there are four main drivers of Phorm's business, being: users, publishers, advertisers and advertisement performance. All of these key elements need to be developed and progressed in each target market before significant revenues can be generated.

On 27 March 2014, the Company announced that it had reached a total of over 30 million daily unique users globally. The peak daily unique user number in H1 2013 has increased approximately 44 times year-on-year in H1 2014. The growth in user numbers has been driven primarily by the development of new markets and is currently expected to translate into higher revenues over the coming months, as both inventory and advertising campaigns increase.

Inventory refers to the number of advertising slots on web pages that are made available to Phorm's system. Inventory is presented as an advertising request from the publisher site as a web page loads on a user's browser. The number of advertising requests received demonstrates the strength of Phorm's publisher partnerships. The number of partnerships has increased and advertising requests have grown significantly, increasing 35 times year-on-year from approximately 1.6 billion in H1 2013 to approximately 60 billion in H1 2014.

The main challenge that the Company has faced in recent years has been the relatively small number of users, which has had a major impact on the group's ability to monetise the advertising requests sent from publishers. Of the approximate 1.6 billion advertising requests received in H1 2013, only 129 million, or 8 per cent., related to users who had consented to Phorm's system. In H1 2014, the total number of requests had risen to approximately 60 billion and over 27 billion of these, or 45 per cent., were from Phorm users.

The growth in the number of advertising requests attributable to Phorm users has greatly improved the Company's ability to deliver larger advertising campaigns more rapidly, thereby enhancing the rate of revenue generation.

The total number of advertising impressions actually served has increased approximately 35 times from 63 million in H1 2013 to over 2.3 billion in H1 2014. Phorm currently expects this growth to strengthen over the remainder of 2014 with the gathering momentum and further commercialisation of its operations in China.

On 30 September 2013, Phorm announced that its total revenue for the six months ended 30 June 2013 was US$28,545. The Company is pleased to announce that its unaudited total revenue for the period from 1 January 2014 to the end of May 2014 is over US$400,000 representing an increase of over 14 times on H1 2013. Based on the lead KPIs of user numbers, advertising requests and advertising impressions, the Company currently expects this growth to continue to strengthen through the remainder of 2014.

The Company is focused on accelerating the rate of revenue growth while maintaining the high standards of advertising performance achieved to date and will provide further updates in due course.

For further information please contact:

Phorm Corporation Limited
Andy Croxson (analysts and investors) +44 (0) 203 397 6001

UK Investors
Mirabaud Securities LLP +44 20 7321 2508 (Broker)
Jason Woollard
Peter Krens

Strand Hanson Limited +44 20 7409 3494 (Nominated Adviser)
James Harris
Matthew Chandler
James Dance

US Investors
Lippert/Heilshorn and Associates +1 212 838 3777 (Investor Relations)
John Heilshorn

About Phorm

Phorm is a global personalisation technology company that makes content and advertising more relevant to the consumer. Phorm's innovative platform preserves user privacy and delivers a more interesting online experience.

Phorm's industry leading technology enables its Internet Service Provider ("ISP") partners to offer a new type of online advertising platform and a free consumer internet content feature, ensuring more relevant advertisements and personalised content for opted-in users.

Phorm's advertising platform revolutionises current standards of online privacy, fully protecting the identity of consumers. Phorm's solution is completely opt-in. Only those users consenting to the service are profiled and only ever on an anonymous basis.

Phorm's partners include leading ISPs, Publishers, Advertising Networks and Advertisers.

Phorm, under a predecessor holding company, was admitted to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in 2004.

For more information, please visit: www.phorm.com

Contact Information:

Contact:
RNS
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0044-207797-4400
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