This investment carries considerable risks and may lead to a loss of the entire assets invested. Projected returns cannot be guaranteed and may be lower than expected.
nichtraucher.de ("non-smoker.de" in English), which has more than 70,000 members, is the largest German-language internet platform dedicated to the subject of smoking cessation. Together with company builder Covus, which founds companies together with ProSiebenSat.1 (a major German media corporation) among others, we will make nichtraucher.de the first digital marketplace for smoking cessation in the German-language part of the internet.
Done! I have finally stopped smoking!" This sentence makes every non-smoker proud – and rightly so. Again, many Germans have made this resolution for 2014. But what helps them overcome their addiction? Is there THE ultimate method for quitting smoking? Becoming a non-smoker is a lengthy process during which people have to find out which method suits them best. But no matter which method they choose, the motivation and a strong will to reach their goal are essential. This is precisely where nichtraucher.de helps people.
Preview of the New nichtraucher.de Website
Independent Development into the Largest German Non-smoker Portal
As of today, nichtraucher.de is already the largest German-language internet portal dedicated to the subject of smoking cessation, and it was created together with experts such as Prof. Dr. med. Christian Bergmann of the Berlin Charité, one of the largest university hospitals in Europe. In particular, members benefit from the very active community. Together, our members overcome all small and large hurdles on their way to smoking cessation and fill nichtraucher.de with life. During this process, the portal supports them by means of various services: Interactive smoker tests, individual cessation plans, support by experts, and many other tools assist members from their first day until long after their last cigarette.
And the success speaks for itself: nichtraucher.de has managed to become the largest non-smoker community in Germany with more than 70,000 registered members and more than 1.8 million posts in the forum all by itself; it was not supported by advertising campaigns or active search engine optimization.
The generic domain nichtraucher.de is the basis of this successful development. Descriptive domains have the advantage that they receive a better search engine rating, which ensures a higher placement on Google and other sites. Thus, nichtraucher.de was able to grow to its current size solely because of its good search engine placement and the activity of its members.
The independent development into the non-smoker community with the most members has proven the huge demand in this segment. It is time this potential was used in an economic sense and nichtraucher.de was developed into a company that permanently generates profits. For this reason, Covus Health GmbH is now taking nichtraucher.de to the next level and is concentrating on the continuous growth of the community.
Covus – Specialist for the Development and Sale of Lead Generation Portals
As a part of the Covus group of companies, nichtraucher.de is ideally positioned: Covus operates internationally as a company builder, and, among others, it developed browsergames.de, the largest German browser games portal, and sold it to ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG. OnlineVersicherung.de, another company from the Covus group of companies, was successfully launched by means of crowdfunding on Companisto in September 2013.
We wish to repeat this success with nichtraucher.de and to build the largest German lead generation portal for smoking cessation and health care. "Lead generation portal" means that we earn money by referring potential non-smokers to partners from the health care industry. In other words, we refer people who wish to become non-smokers to companies offering products or services related to the subject of smoking cessation and receive a commission for this. Covus is very experienced in developing lead generation portals. Some famous examples of this are browsergames.de, pro.de, and gutscheincodes.de. Several such companies have been led to an exit already.
The Entrance Hall of Covus in the Heart of Berlin
Just as the entire health care industry, the smoking cessation industry has been experiencing steady growth for decades. As a result, a huge market on which international companies offer their products and services has developed. On the demand side, there are almost 9 million people wishing to become non-smokers in Germany alone according to the latest report on drugs and addiction by the federal government. This target group spends more than 14 billion euros on tobacco products. Once these people have quit smoking, these 14 billion euros become available for smoking cessation products. The result is an enormous lead potential (i.e., potential of referral), which nichtraucher.de will use purposefully.
Therefore, we will make nichtraucher.de the first digital marketplace for smoking cessation in Germany. The portal collects selected, tested, and demonstrably successful offers in a single place and presents them to the users by means of detailed information. For this purpose, we work together with experts. On nichtraucher.de, members receive precisely the information that they are looking for in combination with true user feedback.
Because of the existing very large community and the cooperation of the portal with renowned experts, the Covus group has been able to conclude more than 30 cooperation agreements with companies from the industry so far, including "Allen Carr," the largest provider of non-smoker seminars worldwide.
Potential Exit to a Company from the Health Care Industry
By means of nichtraucher.de, however, we wish not only to build a sensible portal for non-smokers, but also to create a profitable investment case for our shareholders and the Companists. Therefore, we are aiming for an exit to a company from the health care industry in the medium term.
The exit potential of nichtraucher.de is due to its attractiveness to the entire health care industry and will thus be an integral part of the strategy from the beginning: The digitalization of the health care industry is a new challenge to all competitors. Consequently, more and more major international companies are seeking to enter the internet business, which has been dominated by smaller players so far. The major companies from the health care industry are often worth several billions, yet they lack the experience and competence necessary to develop internet portals. For a health care company, it is easier and more sensible to purchase an existing, well-functioning portal than to take the risks and expenses of developing an own portal.
nichtraucher.de enables these companies to minimize the barriers to entry and to create a direct channel of communication with their target group. The large and closely targeted community represents an important asset that makes nichtraucher.de a serious candidate for an exit. Therefore, we are dedicated to leading nichtraucher.de to an exit for the benefit of the Companists and the other shareholders by addressing strategic partners directly and early.
Cross-media Positioning of nichtraucher.de
The Nichtraucher.de App
For this purpose, it is important that we position ourselves across different media from the beginning. Mobile internet usage has become part of our everyday life. Community-based services in particular focus strongly on mobile solutions, for these solutions offer entirely new possibilities in addition to the constant availability of the user. Thus, mobile strategy is a core subject for nichtraucher.de as well because mobile solutions can be used to expand the offer for our cooperators in addition to providing an additional value to users.
Consequently, the nichtraucher.de app will be available shortly. The nichtraucher.de app will serve as a constant motivator and a mobile connection to the community. It will inform users for how many days they have not smoked and which important milestones they have reached as well as how much money they have saved and how much lifetime they have gained. Moreover, it will contain a HELP feature: Particularly during the first days after quitting, future non-smokers frequently face situations in which it is extremely difficult not to smoke. In such situations, they need to be supported in order not to succumb to the force of habit. If this happens, the nichtraucher.de app will send a call for help to the contacts of the member, who may then actively support him or her. In the medium term, we will also expand the offer for our cooperators via the app and be able to offer location-based service for instance.
nichtraucher.de addresses all smokers who want to become non-smokers. Even if this target group is considered solely on the national level, the figures are impressive: According to the latest drug and addiction report by the federal government, 14.7 million men and women in Germany smoke, which corresponds to more than 25 % of the population over the age of 15. Each year, they spend more than 24 billion euros on tobacco products. Another 25 % of the population are ex-smokers.
More than 60 % of German smokers want to become non-smokers. This corresponds to almost 9 million people who are currently still spending more than 14 billion euros on cigarettes. Smoking is not only harmful to everybody but also very expensive, which is why many people are willing to pay for smoking cessation products. Every smoker knows: No smoking cessation seminar or product is as expensive as regular tobacco consumption in the medium term.
The Target Group of nichtraucher.de
The global market related to smoking cessation has been subject to steady growth for years. According to a study by GBI Research, the market currently has a volume of approx. USD 4.8 billion. In 2018, a market volume of USD 6.2 billion will have been reached.
The industry of smoking cessation seminars is particularly promising. Ever since more and more health insurance companies have started covering the seminar fees, the market leader Allen Carr (a cooperator of nichtraucher.de) alone counts more than 50,000 participants each year. If the average seminar fee is approx. € 200, this leads to a sales volume of € 10,000,000.00. Other successful non-smoker products are smoking cessation literature, DVDs, nicotine patches, acupuncture, hypnotherapy and many more.
In the world of business, nichtraucher.de assumes the classic role of an intermediary. Because of the excellent domain, there is already a very active community of more than 70,000 members on nichtraucher.de, all of which are interested in one subject: smoking cessation.
In regard to smoking cessation, there is a high demand for concrete measures to support and maintain abstinence – which leads to a clearly defined target group. Thus, by means of nichtraucher.de, companies may reach their potential customers directly and offer suitable products to them. The users will also benefit from the expansion of the portal. Because of the professionalization, nichtraucher.de can be expanded in a way that would not be possible without a working business concept. Furthermore, only select and reliable companies will be enabled to place their products on nichtraucher.de.
The Sales Forecast of nichtraucher.de from 2014 to 2018
nichtraucher.de is a sales partner (affiliate) of different companies from the area of smoking cessation and from the health care industry. These companies pay a commission for the new customers they may attract via nichtraucher.de. The following two examples illustrate how this works:
- Via the Covus group of companies, nichtraucher.de has already concluded a cooperation agreement with Allen Carr, the largest provider of smoking cessation seminars worldwide. For each user who signs up for a smoking cessation seminar with Allen Carr, nichtraucher.de receives a commission for referring the user of up to € 100. Since more than 1,000 users already visit nichtraucher.de on a daily basis, a great sales potential results solely from this monetization channel.
The costs for the consumer are often paid by the health insurance companies; nichtraucher.de thus generates sales by referring users to services that they do not have to pay for themselves. Consequently, a true win-win-win situation for users, seminar providers, and nichtraucher.de results.
Because of a large network of providers and because of the individual smoker test, nichtraucher.de is able to offer members a suitable seminar close to their place of residence in virtually any case. If one considers that more than 9 million people want to quit smoking in Germany alone (see above) and that nichtraucher.de receives up to € 100 per seminar referral, one easily notices that a huge sales potential exists in the referral of smoking cessation seminars alone. - In addition to this, there are a number of other monetization channels for the largest German non-smoker portal. Another example: A user of nichtraucher.de has stopped smoking a few weeks ago. By means of the integrated smoking calculator, he finds out how much money he has saved so far and wants to reward himself for this. He receives offers that are all related to his new lifestyle. In such a case, the new non-smoker learns which sensible things he can do with the money and his newly acquired energy, for example a cooking seminar for his improved taste buds, tooth bleaching for a radiant smile, or a dance class for his new body image. nichtraucher.de includes tailored offers of its partners in the smoking calculator and thus advertises the products of these partners.
In this case, nichtraucher.de also receives a commission when the member accepts the recommendation and uses the service offered by our partner company. This monetization strategy has already been implemented very successfully by various other Covus portals such as gutscheincodes.de or pro.de.
Starting with the second quarter of 2014, the nichtraucher.de app will be available in addition for a price of € 1.69. The app provides users with mobile access to the nichtraucher.de community and offers them numerous mobile features of the portal, for instance the smoking calculator and the HELP feature (see above). nichtraucher.de will generate 6 % of the total sales from app sales.
The specific lead generation for the area of smoking cessation and health care is still unique on the German market. This concept enables nichtraucher.de to presumably reach breakeven only 9 months after the roll-out. In 2015, we intend to refer 50,000 customers to our partner companies, which will lead to sales of € 3 million and a profit of € 1.6 million for nichtraucher.de.
nichtraucher.de has become the focal point for smoking cessation in the German-language part of the internet.
Screen Design of the Future nichtraucher.de Portal
The concept rests on two pillars: expert information and the community. Immediately after the free registration, the new member takes a brief test that was developed in cooperation with leading experts such as Prof. Dr. med. Christian Bergmann of the Berlin Charité. The test provides an overview of the individual smoking habits of each member. Thus, it can determine which smoker type each member is. Based on this result, the member is offered support tailored to his or her needs. By means of this tailored information and a non-smoking plan based on the individual smoking habits, nichtraucher.de helps smokers precisely where they need help.
In addition, users receive comprehensive support during all stages of withdrawal from the time of their registration:
- The nichtraucher.de diary may be used by members to get their experiences, their successes or failures, their thoughts, or their frustration off their chest. The diary is a motivation for logging in on a daily basis and describing – in a brief or detailed fashion depending on the need – one's day without cigarettes. Users may browse through their diary and see how they were doing a few weeks ago. They may also share their entries and thus communicate with their friends.
- The milestones section provides future non-smokers with valuable information on their success on a daily basis and contains useful tips on resisting the urge.
- The integrated smoking calculator precisely shows users for how many days they have not smoked and which amount of money they have saved because of this. Thus, members stay motivated to quit smoking for good.
- Moreover, our editorial staff composes various articles containing the latest news related to the subject of smoking cessation.
The second and most important pillar of nichtraucher.de is the community that already exists today, consists of 70,000 members, and has published more than 1.8 million posts in the forum. Apart from theoretical knowledge and the right tools, another thing is essential: motivation! The great determination to become a non-smoker has to be strengthened every day. All members of nichtraucher.de are connected by their common experience. Consequently, they may support each other in case a relapse is imminent. They may also congratulate each other when an important milestone has been reached. In any case, the feeling of community gives people the strength to carry on – and this happens every day after a successful log-in.
By means of the investment of the Companists, we will develop nichtraucher.de into the first digital marketplace for smoking cessation. To reach this goal, we will redesign the entire portal and add several features. In the future, various products and services related to smoking cessation will be presented by means of detailed information, discussed by the community, and offered by partner companies on nichtraucher.de. Thus, interested people will have the opportunity to thoroughly inform themselves and receive unfiltered user feedback from the community.
The new portal will contain a news feed on the homepage of each member. There, members will be able to read the shared posts or public diary entries of their friends. Furthermore, a large forum, chats, friends lists, and private messages will be available. These tools will cause users to become active and have fun so that the difficult subject of smoking cessation will be connected with positive emotions. On a daily basis, users will discuss various everyday topics, offer tips, and celebrate successes together. The community members will bolster each other according to the saying "a problem shared is a problem halved."
With regard to marketing and sales in particular, we benefit from our membership in the Covus group of companies. Whereas other start-ups have to save money in these areas in the beginning, we can draw on the existing and well-established structures of an international company builder with more than 150 employees. This enables us to gain momentum very quickly.
The Covus Office
Sales
Our sales team obtains new partner companies from all over Germany every day. The portfolio of these companies ranges from non-smoking seminars and nicotine patches to literature and wellness products.
Each partner we obtain is priceless to us because each partner increases the potential for leads and thus for sales. In terms of sales, nichtraucher.de also benefits from its close relations with the Covus group, for we may draw both on an existing sales team and on an existing network.
Marketing
Domain
nichtraucher.de primarily benefits from its generic domain and the good search engine ratings resulting from this. Thus, nichtraucher.de has managed to achieve up to 200 new registrations per day even without any marketing activities.
SEO and SEA
Because of its domain, the portal already provides a very good basis, which is why nichtraucher.de is listed in many relevant search results. This very good starting position enables nichtraucher.de to further increase the traffic and attract new users even by means of small investments in paid advertising. Additional optimization in the area of search engine optimization will continuously improve search engine placement in the future and thus create additional potential for member acquisition.
Social Media and "Invite a Friend"
nichtraucher.de is on everyone's lips among its members – 70,000 registered users are the best proof that the portal has been shared and recommended by trusting users. Since this has worked so well in the past, it will be further increased in the future: The community will be provided with additional ways of informing and inviting friends and acquaintances. Thus, costly advertising campaigns will be reduced to a minimum in the future as well. nichtraucher.de will benefit from this because the portal can keep growing by means of the activities of the existing large community, while the investments will remain small.
Mobile App
The nichtraucher.de app is not only an integral part of our product, but it is also an important element of our marketing strategy. Its placement in the Apple App Store and in the Google Play Store will ensure a high visibility of nichtraucher.de, which will in turn benefit the portal as well. Indeed, becoming a non-smoker is a topic relevant to many people, who certainly also want to be supported by an app in the process.
Since the app will have the broadest scope of features in the area of non-smoking apps, we are convinced that it will reach a very good placement in each of the stores. The nichtraucher.de app is currently being designed by the experts of the Covus group of companies and will afterwards be developed internally as well. Thus, nichtraucher.de once again benefits from its close relation to the Covus group.
Design of the nichtraucher.de App
Today, nichtraucher.de is already the largest non-smoker community in the German-speaking world. Apart from several small forums and communities, www.rauchfrei-info.de and www.ich-werde-nichtraucher.de in particular are the main competitors.
Compared to these portals, the domain name of nichtraucher.de is a significant advantage. Just ask yourself at which domain name you would expect to find the largest non-smoker community in Germany. Right, at www.nichtraucher.de. This domain name is also extremely helpful to us in terms of SEO.
Furthermore, the two communities mentioned above may not draw on the resources of a company builder like Covus, which has already led several companies to an exit. Consequently, these competitive advantages have ensured that the community of nichtraucher.de has been much larger than any of the other communities.
The membership in the Covus group of companies constitutes several unique selling points. Unlike us, none of our direct competitors come from the area of online business. Thus, we may draw on a lot of experience, which gives us the following advantages:
- Low Fixed Costs – nichtraucher.de may draw on the resources of the Covus group of companies. This leads to significantly reduced fixed costs because almost all necessary services may be purchased internally.
- Personnel – The Covus group consists of experienced teams with a total of 150 employees. The specialties of these employees cover everything from programming to online marketing. Thus, we can adapt the team size of nichtraucher.de to the development and access absolute experts from various areas at any time.
- High Quality – The long experience of Covus in the areas of IT, online marketing, and sales guarantees a high quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of the new positioning of nichtraucher.de.
- Always Up-to-date – The team of nichtraucher.de exchanges information with other companies and partners within the Covus group on the Covus campus on a regular basis. nichtraucher.de constantly benefits from their experience and the combined expertise.
Team
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Maria Pachomow is the founder of nichtraucher.de. Together with Sven Lubek and Markus Malti, she founded Covus Health GmbH, the company that operates nichtraucher.de, as part of the Covus group in Berlin in November 2013. Maria studied business in Berlin, Munich, and Milan. Prior to this, she gained international experience at companies such as Audi in Dubai. Her main responsibilities are marketing and customer acquisition. |
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Christian Borgmeyer is the product manager of nichtraucher.de. He is designing the new nichtraucher.de, is responsible for the development of the nichtraucher.de app, and promotes product development. Christian studied engineering management in Göttingen and contributes his long experience as a project manager in online environments to the company. His main focus is on product management and the development of online projects. |
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Eric Boge is the IT specialist of the team. Eric manages the technical implementation of the nichtraucher.de roll-out and ensures that the portal is running smoothly. Eric has more than ten years of work experience as a programmer and is familiar with a multitude of programming languages. Paying special attention to the structure and quality of the source code, Eric has implemented various projects for the Covus group. He now uses this experience for his work at nichtraucher.de. |
Management
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Sven Lubek - Founder of Covus In 2003, Sven Lubek founded his company Covus. By means of more than fifty thousand domains, he has been creating one of the largest German domain portfolios. Because of this large number of domains, Sven Lubek has become an expert in digital commerce (D-Commerce) and was able to acquire an in-depth knowledge in the areas of search engine optimization, online marketing, and lead generation. Thus, Covus soon generated several millions in sales.
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Markus Malti - Partner at Covus Markus Malti has a lot of experience in the areas of marketing, sales, and business development as well as in operational management of technology and media companies. As a member of the Covus management, he contributes his experience to the nichtraucher.de team and has been supervising the development of Covus Health from the very first steps. |
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nichtraucher.de, which has more than 70,000 registered members, is already the largest German non-smoker community. This long reach within a clearly defined target group offers a huge economic potential. Together with the Covus group, we will make nichtraucher.de the first digital marketplace for smoking cessation in the German-language part of the internet.
Currently, we are acquiring additional partner companies from the health care and smoking cessation industry. As of today, we may already access a powerful portfolio of more than 30 cooperators, which will grow steadily in the future.
Thus, we are convinced that we will make nichtraucher.de profitable and highly interesting to investors soon. Over the medium term, we aim to develop nichtraucher.de into the largest German lead generation portal for smoking cessation and health care.
Over the long term, we intend to internationalize the concept behind nichtraucher.de. Once we have improved services for our users and obtained a proof of concept in the German market, we will bring nichtraucher.de to foreign markets using new domains. In so doing, we will focus on English-speaking countries first and then develop additional versions for the respective markets.
Of course, the planned exit will always be part of the strategy. All measures taken have the objective of selling nichtraucher.de or an international spin-off to a major company from the health care industry in a profitable manner. The team of nichtraucher.de continuously works to achieve the maximum benefit possible both for the users and for the company. Major companies in particular benefit from such a target group oriented project, and nichtraucher.de will take all actions necessary to become a worthwhile investment for these companies.
Using the investment of the Companists, we want to increase the additional value for our users and thus improve our position as the market leader. The first central milestone of this process will be the roll-out of the new platform, by means of which we will modernize the design of nichtraucher.de, add features to it, and develop it into the first digital marketplace for smoking cessation. Our own "Core II" system, upon which all Covus companies are based, will serve as the technological basis for this. Our expertise using this system will allow us to implement technical changes very rapidly and diligently. Moreover, in addition to the portal, we will develop the nichtraucher.de app for mobile devices running iOS and Android.
Another important aspect will be the expansion of our sales team: Each new cooperator represents an important step toward success, for this means that our offer is expanded and that our potential sales volume increases. Consequently, we intend to further expand our sales team using the investment of the Companists. In so doing, we may also draw on the highly qualified employees of the Covus group.
The third major area will be marketing: The portal has grown significantly without paid advertising campaigns, but its reach can still be optimized. Aside from crowdfunding on Companisto, we will use targeted online marketing campaigns to acquire previously unreached user groups and to optimize the conversion rate.
Covus Health GmbH
Schwedter Straße 263
10119 Berlin
Germany
Email: info@nichtraucher.de
Phone: +49 800 2688733
Website: www.nichtraucher.de
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