May 16 - myPhotopipe.com Reports First Quarter Operating Results
Revenues Rise 26%, Gross Profit Margins Expand to 74%
myPhotopipe.com, Inc. (OTC: MPPC), a web-based online provider of digital photo processing and related services, announced its operating results for the first quarter of 2008.
For the three months ended March 31, 2008, revenues increased 26% to $366,329, compared with revenues of $289,869 in the first quarter of 2007. Gross profits increased 42% to $270,373 (73.8% of revenues), versus $189,864 (65.5% of revenues) in the prior-year quarter. The Company reported a net loss of ($73,705) in the most recent quarter, versus a net loss of ($15,753) in the three months ended March 31, 2007.
"myPhotopipe.com continued to post excellent gains in revenues during the most recent quarter, with an increase of 26% over prior-year levels," stated L. Douglas Keeney, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "That said, a significant design initiative related to the overhaul of our web site made unexpectedly good progress in January, and we elected to accelerate its launch, which in turn necessitated a concurrent increase in our search engine buys. Accordingly, we realized a slightly higher loss for the period than we anticipated, but we have been extremely pleased with the initial results from the new web site, as measured in a sharp increase in customer acquisitions, excellent industry notices, and continued revenue growth during April."
"New product introductions continued at our historical pace, which by any measure is rapid and well accepted by the market. Our gallery wraps and mounted products have been well received by customers, as has our pioneering PRPrintsPro platform that is now being used by many professional sports organizations. myPhotopipe.com's portfolio of greeting cards, a significant vein of revenue that we intend to vigorously mine, has increased by several hundred SKUs since the beginning of the year. Our project to allow local stationery stores to access more than 600 photo greeting cards appears to be progressing towards a beta in the second quarter. And finally, our industry data couldn't be better. Owners of digital cameras are making prints at historically high and growing levels, and online ordering with direct mail delivery is the channel of fulfillment that is expanding significantly faster than retail, kiosks or any other method of purchasing prints."
"We're an online lab serving the needs of professional and serious amateur photographers," continued Keeney. "This is a segment not all of us understand, so allow me this final thought. According to a recent InfoTrends study, professional photographers are themselves a $5 billion industry. They shoot pictures and earn 80%+ of their mean annual revenues of $130,000 by selling photographic prints. What's our value proposition to them? In a nutshell it is as follows. Because they waited for high-end digital cameras, professional photographers were slower than the consumer to switch to digital technology. But now, the switch is underway in earnest. Ironically, at the very same time these photographers are 'going digital', more than half of their local camera stores, where they went for photo processing, have closed, so they are going online to find a new photo processor. What do they see? Photo mousepads and photo coffee mugs and photo t-shirts — all sorts of 'cute' ways to share your photos. That's not what professionals are looking for. They're searching for a lab that focuses on making a top notch, professional print at a price that is competitive to any lab in the nation. That's a description of myPhotopipe.com. That's our value proposition. Using our products our customers can make a living. That's a wonderful position to be in. We believe we're in the right place at the right time, serving a lucrative slice of the digital photography market during a period of extensive brand switching. With persistence and steadfastness, we will emerge as one of the top brands in the business."
May 6 - myPhotopipe.com Unveils New Customer Education Program
2008 customer growth rate, new product introductions highest in Company history
myPhotopipe.com, Inc. (OTC: MPPC), a web-based online provider of digital photo processing and related services, today announced the unveiling of a series of customer education products themed "A Beautiful Photograph is Just the Beginning."
The new initiative follows a period of rapid growth in the Company's new customers and first-time purchasers, and a period of extensive new product development. "We needed to connect the dots," stated Pete Casabonne, President of myPhotopipe.com, Inc. "We've been in a fairly intense period of new product introductions and new customer growth, which means we need to make sure the breadth of our products is known to our customers, and that our customers are knowledgeable about our products. With the Internet and new digital tools, this is not your grandmother's 4X6 print anymore."
Since January 8, 2008, first-time customers and new customer registrations have increased from 17,480 to 19,645, for a net gain of 2,165, or an average of 18.5 first-time users a day. This represents the highest growth rate in the Company's history. At the same time the Company has increased the number of SKUs across almost every product line, introduced a new line of mounted products, introduced two new collections in its greeting card line, and updated the look of its exclusive multi-photo print templates.
"We service photographers across the nation, so we get to see what's happening, and when we see the smallest spike behind a style or a print size, we try to quickly translate that into a form that all of our photographers can access," continued Casabonne. "Today's photographers are demanding more from their online photo processors. They want ways to add drama to an image or turn a print into a work of wall art, but they don't want to wrestle with an alligator to make that happen. 'A Beautiful Photograph is Just the Beginning' tells our customers that there are many things they can do with that photograph beyond the ordinary 4X6 and 8X10."
The new initiative consists of a series of scheduled package inserts and forced updates to users of the Company's Remote Order Entry System software.
April 30 - Compounding Growth Continues in Online Digital Photo Processing Space
Digital prints up 25%, online channel up 51% according to data released this week
myPhotopipe.com, Inc. (OTC: MPPC), a web-based online provider of digital photo processing and related services, commented upon industry data that became available this week.
The February 2008 PMA Monthly Printing and Camera Trends Report released this week reveals that total prints made from digital images increased 25% when compared with the prior-year month, and the total share of market for "ordering prints online with mail delivery" expanded from 11.5% to 15.6%. This represents year-over-year growth of 51% for online ordering with mail delivery. February was the 14th consecutive month of double-digit industry growth in prints made from digital images since December 2006, as well as the 14th consecutive month of double- or triple-digit growth in prints ordered online and received via mail.
Compounded together — 25% or better growth in the overall market and 50% or better growth in the online channel — the value of a share point in the online space has nearly tripled since the beginning of 2006.
"myPhotopipe.com has always been a believer in the online model for ordering digital prints, and we remain the only 'pure play' in the online ordering with mail delivery channel," observed L. Douglas Keeney, Chief Executive Officer of myPhotopipe.com, Inc. "It's easier. It's convenient. It delivers your prints to your home. So, yes, this latest data represents excellent news for our space and for our Company. Unfortunately, most people will overlook the most important part of the data, which involves the compounding effect, the perfect storm if you will, of a growth market and a growing share of that market. On a constant dollar basis, the value of online ordering has surged almost 300% since 2006."
On a quarterly basis, the share of market represented by photographs being ordered online with mail delivery increased from 12.4% in March 2007, to 13.5% in June, 14.0% in September, 15.1% in December and ending February 2008 at 15.6%.
myPhotopipe.com recently announced a record year and continued growth in both new products and customers. "We're adding between 400 and 600 new customers a month and seeing our web site bookmarked approximately 12,000 times a month. The new industry data tells us that the future value of every new customer increases over time, which in part explains why those of us in both the consumer and professional segment of this business are enjoying extraordinary sales growth," concluded Keeney.
April 28 - New Products Driving Growth at myPhotopipe.com, Inc.
myPhotopipe.com, Inc. (OTC: MPPC), a web-based online provider of digital photo processing and related services, today reported upon the role that new products are playing in its recent sales growth and strategy for future success.
New products are the lifeblood of any company, but the risks associated with them can be daunting, so much so that management is often forced into playing it safe. Not so at myPhotopipe.com. In 2007 the Company introduced over 800 new items, including a revamped line of Gallery Wraps and its PRPrintsPro product line. Data released today indicate that these new products are already paying healthy dividends to myPhotopipe.com, Inc. — a fast-growing online photo processor that caters to serious amateur and professional photographers.
Most impressively, PRPrintsPro, a line of prints used by celebrities and professional sports organizations, grew by more than 144% between the first and second half of 2007, accounting for 8% of the Company's revenues in the final six months of the year. Meanwhile, sales of Gallery Wraps, a popular finish that wraps canvas prints around wood stretcher bars, increased 27%, from 3.7% of Company revenues in 2007, to 4.7% of sales during the first quarter of 2008. Taken together, these two new products accounted for 11.7% of myPhotopipe.com's revenues in the second half of 2007.
"PRPrintsPro represents an excellent example of how we look at processes and try to make them easier, faster and cheaper," stated L. Douglas Keeney, Chief Executive Officer of myPhotopipe.com, Inc. "People know we deliver quality, but the digital revolution is about making things easier. Surprisingly enough, there's a lot of pain in making a print for a celebrity to autograph — finding the photo, cropping it just so, appending the brand or logo, adding the person's name, getting the spelling right, maybe including the logo or brand of a co-sponsor. Our software eliminates that pain, simplifies the process and cuts our costs, providing benefits that we then pass along to our customers. Considering the thousands of celebrities, professional athletes, memorabilia shows, sports organizations, fantasy camps, TV stations and more, we think this product has the makings of a multi-million dollar business for the Company."
PRPrintsPro was tested in the first half of 2007 and formally launched in June of that year. It was quickly adopted as the ordering platform for the media or community relations departments of many professional sports and entertainment organizations, including the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants, the Tennessee Titans, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Feld Entertainment (Disney-on-Ice and High School Musical) and more.
The Company has aggressively launched new products for serious photographers since its conversion to a digital processor. "It is not about putting your photo on a mouse pad," observed Keeney. "That's a manufacturing approach, not a technology approach. It's that same old 'put-your-logo-here' stuff we've seen for years. Digital photo tools are all about having your photograph printed your way. Borders? Captions? Different substrates? Panoramics? We give photographers the technology to convert their digital images into these formats without using photo processing software and without learning how to design or scale a print. Prints from digital images are now a multi-billion dollar business that is growing 27% a year. Our approach is to gain customers by applying technology to let them have it their way or better and to pass the savings on to them."
"Gallery Wraps represented less of a risk, because they caught a 'wave' that we thought was welling up in our industry," continued Keeney. "It's a beautiful finish on museum-quality canvas that can hang on a wall in an instant. Companies such as Rosetta Stone, Georgia Tech and numerous others have propelled Gallery Wrap sales to new highs, and we think the best is yet to come."
April 23 - myPhotopipe.com Expands Presence on Internet
Launches Ad-Supported Instructional Web Site, Tutorials on YouTube
myPhotopipe.com, Inc. (OTC: MPPC), a web-based online provider of digital photo processing and related services, announced the launch of www.realphotoprint.com, an advertising-supported web site that provides free information and resources to digital photographers.
As the name suggests, www.realphotoprint.com focuses on the conversion of digital images into photographic prints. Topics will include Internet broadband, digital file conversions, color management, pixels versus DPI, retouching, resizing, and anything of interest to the community of photographers that should become regular users of the site. Blogs and community forums will be added in the near future. The new web site presently receives Google AdWord placements, and myPhotopipe.com, Inc. will share in revenues on a 'pay-per-click' basis. "Obviously, our challenge is to evolve the site to attract users, but this is an area of great interest to us and our customers, and we believe it has the potential to become a viable business in and of itself," observed Pete Casabonne, President of myPhotopipe.com, Inc.
myPhotopipe.com has also launched the first in a series of video tutorials on YouTube. The YouTube video tutorials explain how to use the Company's Remote Order Entry System software (ROES). Links to these videos are available on the Company's web site at www.myphotopipe.com/links.php.
myPhotopipe.com has also partnered with ePhotopros.com to provide reciprocal web links between the companies. ePhotopros provides a wealth of instructional tutorials for photographers. The tutorials are produced by contributors, including manufacturers of software used by professional photographers.
"We recognized an opportunity to move our message beyond our own web site and on to other sites that our customers are visiting," continued Casabonne. "If our customers are on YouTube, we need to be on YouTube — or, on our own free-standing web site or with ePhotopros, an aggregator of content for serious amateur and professional photographers. The point is that, in today's world customers define how they spend their time on the Internet, and myPhotopipe.com needs to be visible through multiple venues."
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