Last year, the domestic internet leader Seznam.cz increased its operating profit by 13 percent to approximately 1.6 billion crowns. Revenues increased by 5.5 percent to CZK 4.95 billion. The traffic to the homepage increased, as did the use of Zboží.cz and Mapy.cz services. Searches grew six percent year over year. The company announced this in a press release today.
The website traffic increased due to user interest in news and current information during the coronavirus pandemic, said Pavel Zima, Chairman of the Board of Directors. According to him, changes in the amount and composition of clients’ advertising investments made it possible to meet an ambitious financial plan.
According to the company, the transfer of purchases to the Internet during a pandemic was reflected in the growth of the Zboží.cz price comparator. It recorded three million users per month and increased revenues by 35 percent, which exceeds the growth of the entire e-commerce market.
Seznam, therefore, decided to separate e-commerce into a completely new product division and began looking for its director. “In the Czech Republic, in cooperation with a thousand e-shops, we want to become a shopping platform competing with large global players,” added Zima.
The Mapy.cz application joined the fight against coronavirus with the possibility of location sharing, which brought it about half a million new users. Seznam.cz also used current traffic information in its application in its navigation. In the fall, the company launched a new discussion module that is used by more than 800,000 people every day. According to Seznamu.cz, it is one of the most used domestic discussion platforms, for example, it is larger than Czech Twitter.
This year, Seznam.cz will focus on expanding video and audio content in its services. In addition to his work, he wants to become a platform that will allow the authors of videos and podcasts to monetize their work. He is preparing a new distribution channel for them. Seznam.cz will allow authors of written articles to publish on the home page and, as publishers, will offer them a share of the advertisement that will appear next to their texts.
At the beginning of the year, the company improved the search method this year, she said. It has made the website available to the partners, where its technological solutions are freely available. The browser plans to equip Seznam.cz with a new translator and is preparing to change the design of the Sport.cz website. It is also preparing the construction of its second data center called Nagoya, which should be located in Benátky nad Jizerou in the Mladá Boleslav region within two years.
The owner of Seznam.cz is its founder Ivo Lukačovič.