Hamburg, 27 May 2019 - The leading B2B marketplace “Wer liefert was” (wlw) and the B2B platform EUROPAGES are now part of the new corporate brand Visable. Both platforms will continue as Visable brands respectively offerings, as will the online marketing services already offered today.
- Visable combines the leading B2B platforms “Wer liefert was” and EUROPAGES under the umbrella of a new corporate brand
- Visable helps European SMEs digitise their marketing and sales in 29 markets
- Millions to be invested in personnel, technology and infrastructure; first step taken with the recent acquisition of the platform Gebraucht.de
The leading B2B marketplace “Wer liefert was” (wlw) and the B2B platform EUROPAGES are now part of the new corporate brand Visable. Both platforms will continue as Visable brands respectively offerings, as will the online marketing services already offered today, which companies can use to extend their reach beyond the B2B marketplaces. As a Google Premium and Microsoft Advertising Partner, Visable also provides search engine advertising and retargeting campaigns. The aim is to position and further develop the European B2B champion Visable as a response to international players from the US, China and India. Visable is therefore striving for double-digit sales growth in the coming years. Under Visable, the wlw Group’s turnover is to double from around 50 million euros in 2018 to 100 million euros in the medium term. “We are the leading European player in the online B2B sector and want to become the improved Alibaba of Europe”, says Peter F. Schmid, CEO of Visable, about the company’s aspirations.
Visable drives international expansion forward
Visable is active in 29 European markets and supports European SMEs in using digital sales channels and marketing activities for themselves so that they gain visibility throughout Europe. “Aside from Visable, no other provider in Europe offers specific, company-tailored solutions from its own B2B marketplaces and online marketing services so that international B2B purchasers and suppliers of products and services can come together. In recent years, the acquisition of EUROPAGES and the ongoing expansion of our online marketing offers have laid the foundation for us to hold the leading role in Europe in online B2B business”, explains Schmid.
According to Schmid, the conditions could not be better. Many B2B companies have already digitised their production, but when it comes to digitising at the end of the value chain (i.e. in sales and marketing), SMEs can still develop enormously: “According to a study by Frost & Sullivan, in 2020 the online B2B market will sit at 6.7 trillion US dollars – that’s twice as big as the 3.2 trillion for the online B2C market. Simply put, the potential is huge. And yet we are still at the beginning of digitisation in the B2B sector. This is where Visable serves as a partner to all small and medium-sized enterprises.”
Investments in personnel, technology & infrastructure
Visable is increasingly investing in the development and expansion of expertise and personnel. The appointment of Daniel Keller (formerly at Axel Springer, Microsoft, Autoscout24) as Chief Technology Officer, for example, is proof of this. Only recently, with the takeover of the platform Gebraucht.de, the company further expanded its competence in segments that are so important for the B2B sector (user-centred search, communication possibilities between providers and purchasers, app development as well as the implementation of modern software architecture and cloud infrastructure), acquiring a well-prepared and powerful team for the existing Visable structures at the new location in Berlin. A total of 370 employees now work for Visable at the Hamburg, Berlin and Paris locations.
“We will continue to invest in personnel, IT infrastructure and the improvement of our marketplaces ‘Wer liefert was’ and EUROPAGES in order to be able to offer our customers the best option for online reach while simultaneously offering B2B purchasers the best search in B2B”, says Schmid. “There’s millions available for this every year, and there’s no ruling out further takeovers in the future.”
The name Visable was coined by combining the words “visible” and “enable”. The company name thus describes the promise to give SMEs greater visibility and reach on the internet.
