Bjorn Skarlen's goal is pretty simple: He wants to take over the world.
And don't take the CommerceGate CEO lightly. After starting the Internet payment service provider in November 2005, Skarlen led the company to its first live transaction in March 2006. With offices in Barcelona, Spain, CommerceGate was created to offer European webmasters a unique, European solution.
"There are things that work better if you are in the European territory than operating European billing from another continent," Skarlen says. "Being in Europe, we thought we had a better chance to offer a good product."
After starting to get European webmasters to sign up, CommerceGate's business began to grow after the summer of 2006. During the fall of 2006 and early 2007, many companies from both Europe and the United States had joined.
"CommerceGate is a young company with a lot of experience in the adult arena," Skarlen says. "We have always been interested in adult entertainment. With the increased use of credit cards in Europe and the liberal attitude toward adult content making adult very popular here, CommerceGate will always offer our services to the industry."
The third party IPSP billing company allows medium and large websites to process payments through its gateway using its bank account, fraud filtering system, and customer support. CommerceGate pays websites weekly and offers customizable payment pages in six different languages.
"This industry is so highly communicated. The growth of business and the intelligence that this industry employs enables all of us to do business on so many platforms. We are the leaders of technology, we dictate the trends," Skarlen says. "We make things happen. We are the European marketplace. Many other processing companies say they do EU processing, but the reality is they have no presence in Europe or the European market. We are here, every day, understanding what makes this market unique and what needs to be done for success."
CommerceGate is used by companies that are incorporated in the European region — whether from Europe or the United States and Australia with traffic from Europe. While adult content comprises the bulk of the company's business, it is also involved with processing for dating, games, and other e-commerce services.
"We have definitely increased our presence on the gay side of the industry," Skarlen says. "Our newest accounts are some of the old school big boys of the industry — Cybersocket, Mancheck, Pistol Media, Raging Stallion, just to name a few. It's always a pleasure dealing with gay porn as they have good clean traffic in big volumes."
Skarlen says that CommerceGate converts EU traffic at a minimum of two times better than anyone else, and adds that listening and strong customer service has been a key to its success. "We will never get too big and feel we don't have to listen or provide what clients need."
Skarlen notes that the most valuable asset for a website is its active members. "To lose the re-bills is devastating for a site and its affiliates. Our security measures definitely help to keep the account in good standing and within the rules from the bank and card associations. We see that Visa and MasterCard are putting more pressure on websites dealing with credit cards, and we think that is good — it gives the customer a more secure environment to use their cards in."
As for the future, Skarlen says he has noticed a trend in the last few years that CommerceGate has been ready for: traffic shifting to be more international. "There are more requests to offer services in more languages and more local ways of billing. Domestic cards are out there today, and conversion is healthier for the ones who accept all cards."
Skarlen notes that CommerceGate is focusing on giving high-level service in the credit card business, and wants to offer more cards, more currencies and serve more languages.
"This year we will create an offer with partners to also offer alternative billing to increase conversion and ROI even more," he says. "We see ourselves as very important in the 'food chain' and want to explore the possibilities to partner with others in the chain to give even better, more reliable service and higher earnings for our clients. Our goal is to be the best European IPSP in the adult and high-risk industries, and beyond that is only the rest of the world."
CONTACT INFO: CommerceGate.com; [email protected].
Photo: ComerceGate CEO Bjorn Skarlen
