Consolidated sales of the LiveChat Software group in 1H17/18 (which started on April 1st), rose by 26.2% to PLN 43.6 m. EBITDA was up by 29.8% to PLN 31.1 m and net profit rose by 22.6% to PLN 23.1 m.
„We are focused on growing as rapidly as possible. At LiveChat Software, we are running over 20 development projects of various types and sizes and each is designed to increase our ability to acquire new clients. Our internal goal that we are trying to achieve is to increase the number of clients by 1000 per month. Of course, we have a lot of work ahead of us before we can reach that goal,” LiveChat Software CEO Mariusz Ciepły said.
In 2Q group sales totaled PLN 22 m and were up by 22.6% from the year before. EBITDA rose by 23.7% to PLN 15.5 m and net profit has reached PLN 22 m (up by 23.4%).
The company has recorded very strong operating results both in 2Q and in the entire first half of the year. Gross profit margins in 1H of this financial year rose to 84.2% compared with 83.2% in the same period last year. EBITDA margins were up by 2 percentage points to 71.9%. Net margins have reached 53% versus 54.5% a year ago.
Expansion of the subscriber base remains the key for the company. As of November 1st, a total of 22 229 clients, or 27.7% more than last year, were using the paid solution „LiveChat”.
The rate of customer acquisition in individual months is often subject to annual variability and depends on the situation in the e-commerce sector, as well as other factors. In the 2017 calendar year, months such as February, March, April, May, June, August and September were the best months in the company’s history.
Clients from c. 150 countries use the LiveChat solution. These include Sony Mobile, Stripe, Hulu, BenQ, Orange, Adobe, Pizza Hut, Ryanair, Macy’s, PBS, NetApp and numerous other corporations, public administration, including the US State Department, universities (Stanford) and even sports clubs (including Tottenham Hotspur, Vancouver Canucks). North America is the biggest geographical market for LiveChat Software. Clients from all industries use the solution of Wroclaw-based software house, but the most numerous companies are from sectors such as IT, education, retailing, entertainment and marketing.
In recent months, LiveChat Software has introduced new solutions on the market. BotEngine is a platform which lets users without specialized IT know-how create their own chatbots. It is at an open, free, beta stage. BotEngine is already integrated with Facebook Messenger, LiveChat and Slack and can operate independently on a website using its own Chat Widget.
Chat.io is a live chat type solution whose structure makes it easy to integrate with very different platforms. It is currently integrated with Facebook Messenger but there are plans to integrate it with Twitter, e-mail and text messages as well. Chat.io is currently a paid service but the team is focusing on improving and collecting user opinions about this product.
Both of these products, as well as other projects under development by LiveChat Software, are designed to test the tools and infrastructure for a bigger communications platform. API documentation which is being developed, the marketplace and the community of customers and companies surrounding the product that has been built over time will, in a longer timeframe, give LiveChat Software a chance to develop a wider range of communications products and services for business use.