2020 was, without a doubt, one of the most challenging years that most of us have faced in recent times. If anything, it’s why it is important to look back on the positive outcomes, and we are lucky to say there were many.
While challenging, this year was the year of growth for IPification: we worked hard, we learned a lot, and we have gathered amazing experiences to make the next year even better.
To properly say goodbye to this year and a big hello to the next, we talked to the IPification president Harry Cheung, CEO Stefan Kostic, and CTO Alex Brankovic. We asked them to talk about our achievements in the last year, as well as our ambitious plans for this one.
However, before we delve into the conversations we’ve had with them, we wanted to give a short overview of IPification’s 2020 in the clearest, most objective way: numbers.
IPification’s Award-Winning Year
In addition to meeting our internal goals due to the incredible commitment from Team IPification as a whole, this year we were lucky to be recognized for our hard work by numerous renowned awards programs.
9 Awards out of 19 Nominations (2 nominations TBA)
This truly was an award-winning year for us with 9 wins from award programs that include the Mobile Breakthrough Awards, the Raiffeisen Bank Elevator Lab Challenge, and the World Summit Awards.
We are still waiting on results from two prestigious events, one of which is the amazing Alibaba 2021 Jumpstarter.
3 Webinars
After honing our craft for some time, we felt that this year was the perfect time to start sharing our expertise as widely as we could. This resulted in our hosting of three webinars:
1. The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Identity and Mobile User Authentication
2. MNO Experiences: Stepping Beyond SMS OTP – Protect the User’s Trust via Mobile Identity
3. CarGo App Experience: Mobile User Security and One-Click Login for Better MAU Growth (with Demo)
We had the pleasure of welcoming experts from Microsoft, GBG, SK Telecom, CarGo, and other telco and security industry specialists with whom we’ve discussed important above-mentioned topics. You can still watch these recordings today!
More than 11 different markets
As one of the most important business metrics, we’re extremely proud to say that IPification has deployed its patented mobile authentication, phone number verification, and fraud prevention technology in more than 11 markets.
Our one-click authentication is trusted by some of the leading telco, technology, payment, and OTT companies including Microsoft, GBG, DataZoo, 3HongKong, Axiata Digital.
IPification today reached around 350 million mobile users globally.
All the great results from this past year not only serve as an incredible source of motivation, but they also mean that IPification has set some very ambitious goals for next year.
Exponential Revenue Growth – Focus in 2021
After expanding its coverage globally with Telecom operators, in Q4 2020, IPification started generating revenue as numerous service providers implemented IPification one-click mobile authentication.
Revenue growth around the globe will be one of the main business focuses for IPification in 2021.
“I am thrilled to say that expanding our global coverage was immediately followed by valuable recognitions in the industry. Some of the biggest highlights this year are the partnership we’ve achieved with the tech giant Microsoft, alongside many leading mobile network operators in some of the largest markets. It only shows that our product is developed in the right way as it is obviously meeting the urgent market need. This year has really been the turning point,” said Stefan Kostic, IPification CEO.
Harry Cheung, the president and founder of IPification added that the company has come a long way since the initial idea, and as the founder of the company, he expresses immense pride in the team that has worked very hard to bring IPification where it is today.
“Last year, we positioned ourselves very well and gained much-needed brand awareness in the industry. I believe 2021 will be a very promising year and with everyone’s current attitude, we will be one step closer towards success. By the second half of the year, we will see a steady stream of income which reflects the hard work we have done thus far,” he said.
Product in Focus – Simplifying the Onboarding Process for SME Service Providers and Mobile App Developers
After having established IPification as a trusting partner in the Telecom industry, the IPification tech team will focus on further improving the scope of IPification Mobile-ID. Mobile ID is the product for the service providers and mobile app developers, and the next improvement will be to enable it to analyze additional aspects of the mobile device so as to be able to provide more layers of mobile user account security.
“There is no other technology provider that can do mobile authentication better than the Telcos can do it. The challenge with Mobile Network Operators is their inability to move fast enough when it comes to mobile identity services – otherwise, they do have the needed infrastructure and the mobile user trust to place themself in the center of the game. That is why we are here to support them in terms of technology implementation and integrations. When it comes to our fraud prevention solutions, SIM Swap detection was launched during 2020, but it is just a small subset of the security-related capabilities that IPification’s technology can enable and we are focused on bringing so many new functionalities in 2021,” shared Alex Brankovic, IPification CTO.
Apart from improving these services, now that the company has secured significant Telco coverage on a global level, IPification will focus on simplifying the onboarding process for small and medium businesses, as well as individual app developers who wish to implement IPification solutions.
“One of the things the Tech team will focus on this year is to make the process of onboarding clients easier so that SME service providers can implement IPification into their apps within a few steps”, Alex finished.
The Implications of the Pandemic – Our Team and the Mobile Authentication Market
One of the major topics this year was definitely the pandemic that has impacted every aspect of our lives. As far as our professional lives, the world saw a huge switch to remote working.
Thanks to the already distributed nature of the company, Alex said that the team already functioned well as far as remote working goes. Of course, weekly team building video chat sessions were something that has helped the team keep up the motivation in this tough year.
What our tech team saw in 2020 pandemic is that it has only sped up the digital transformation, further proving that effective mobile identity management systems aren’t a nice-to-have any more, but a must-have. While the mobile authentication landscape hasn’t changed much in the last year, its importance has increased, and we’re happy to see that.
We Couldn’t Have Done It Without Our Amazing Team
Despite all the special circumstances of 2020, it was a very productive year for IPification. Yet it wouldn’t be even close to possible without the dedicated team.
“During last year, IPification has won numerous awards internationally and these have been among the biggest highlights for the company. The notable achievements this year were the Elevator Lab Challenge powered by Raiffeisen Bank and the World Summit Award for Best International Digital Solution for Business and Commerce, said Harry Cheung. “I am incredibly proud to have a team with such great work ethic and I’m determined to see IPification will be a stand out in 2021.”
“I am very proud that in a year as challenging as this one, our team managed to keep the enthusiasm up, put in the hard work, and all of that has resulted in the recognition IPification received from the international community. Thank you to everyone who supported us,” said Stefan Kostic. “Our goals for 2021 may be ambitious, but if anyone can achieve them, then that’s team IPification.”
Go, Team!
Team IPification wishes you Happy Holidays! Get some rest, spend time with your loved ones, and get ready for 2021.
