This week we had the opportunity to speak with Kevin Jourdan the Co-founder of
DotMarket.eu. We discussed the beginnings of the company, what services it offers, and how DotMarket differs from similar companies.
Please present DotMarket to our audience
DotMarket is currently the fastest-growing digital assets brokerage platform in France.
While our main expertise started with Affiliate/Content sites, we now deal on a daily basis with e-Commerce or SaaS businesses too.
Our main focus is to make it smoother, faster, and more secure to buy/sell a website on a market that has a bit of a delay compared to the US for instance when it comes to the digital assets economy.
Please describe the story behind the company: What sparked the idea, and how has it evolved so far?
We obviously didn’t invent anything here. I’ve been a website editor since 2012, and have been facing the usual issues one website editor may face when trying to either buy or sell websites.
After a few transactions, all via my private network, I decided to study what was “available” on the market. Empire Flippers were! But not for French sites. That’s what sparked the idea to create a similar service for French businesses.
Truth is, before launching DotMarket, I first reached out to study the idea of a franchise of the US platform. Knowing very well it could massively help grow faster thanks to their established brand, process, etc..
French market being too small, the answer was a big no. But it did come with encouraging words to get started. Which we did with my associate back in 2019 with a beta version, and early 2020 with the current brand.
Since the launch, we grew to 3M euros worth of assets sold in 2021, 5 times what we achieved in year 1. And we’re aiming at exceeding this number for 2022.
2022 will also be a year of new challenges as we just acquired Duuce.com, a newsletter-focused brokerage platform for the US market, and will be launching Below20.eu, a fully automated, yet vetted, platform dedicated to businesses below 20 K in value.
What services do you offer?
We handle pretty much everything you’d expect a serious broker to handle.
DotMarket is a fully “verified” marketplace. No site is published without getting through a thorough due diligence process.
Once a site has been audited (SEO, Finances, Legal, Tech), it is listed and submitted to our buyer’s pool.
Listings are anonymous, and details are only communicated to vetted buyers who signed their NDA + provided proof of funds.
From there, we make sure it all goes smoothly and efficiently from the questions, and negotiation parts, to the signing of the legal papers (which we provide), the escrow (which we handle), and the migration process (which we operate too).
What is unique for DotMarket?
As of today, this type of “package” is unique to DotMarket on the French market.
But other than the actual service, which is the most complete we could think of (for now, cause we got plenty of ideas to go even further: financing, growth, training…), I’d say what makes DotMarket unique today is the time we spend communicating with our audience!
It surely is something you can’t do at scale, but talking to your customers is a must. And I wouldn’t be surprised if someone told us we’re the team that spends the most time trying to understand what our buyers (especially them) want and expect from us to continuously improve our processes!
Who are your typical customers, and what do you think is the main challenge that your product solves for them?
Obviously, we can separate our audience into 2 main groups: sellers and buyers.
For sellers, we currently basically are the best option to get a fair estimate and full service to sell a digital business in France. I could go on and on about what we bring to the table, but at this point, we’re simply the only platform providing a full package.
Simple as that – sellers can then pick free for all platforms, pay for a listing, and wait for offers. Or come straight to us, and be accompanied all along.
For buyers, the key point is saving time and filtering deals as fast as possible.
No, great buyers don’t actually need platforms to invest. A platform simply is one of several ways to source deals.
And the role of the platform is to present deals that have been verified. For first-time or less experienced buyers, the role of the platform is to source but also to secure deals.
The digital asset world is a jungle, and there are more bad deals than good ones to be made out there.
Our buyers expect us to do the groundwork for them and bring them peace of mind when it comes to investing.
Which trends and technologies do you find to be particularly intriguing these days?
I could speak about global trends, but since we focus on the French market, I’ll try and stick to it.
For France, the biggest trend simply is to see a growing interest in buying and selling digital assets.
We’re definitely way behind the US when it comes to education, financing, etc, but it’s definitely moving, and we’re here to both participate and benefit from this evolution.
Globally, I’d say that the evolution of how Aggregators invest is very exciting to watch. From FBA to e-Commerce brands, and soon enough content sites, media groups, and other digital investors have a lot to learn from their approach and strategy.
