4.2 Opportunity report
Opportunity management
Opportunity management is based on strategic planning and the resulting measures for the development of products and their positioning for various target groups, markets, and countries during the product life cycle.
The Group Management Board, as well as the operative management level of the respective business segments, have the direct responsibility for the early and continuous identification, assessment, and steering of opportunities.
The management team of United Internet AG makes extensive use of detailed evaluations, models, and scenarios on current and future trends regarding sectors, technologies, products, markets/market potential, and competitors in the Group’s fields of activity. The potential opportunities identified during these strategic analyses are then examined with regard to the critical success factors and existing external conditions and possibilities of United Internet AG in planning discussions between the Management Board, Supervisory Board, and operational managers before being implemented in the form of specific measures, targets, and milestones.
The progress and success of these measures is continuously monitored by operational management, as well as the managing directors and management board members of the respective companies.
Opportunities for United Internet
United Internet’s stable and largely non-cyclical business model ensures predictable revenues and cash flows, thus providing the financial flexibility to grasp opportunities in new business fields and markets – organically or via investments and acquisitions.
Broad strategic positioning in growth markets
In view of its broad positioning in current growth markets, the Company’s purely strategic growth opportunities are clearly apparent: universally accessible, permanently available, and increasingly powerful broadband connections are enabling new and more sophisticated cloud applications. From the current perspective, these internet-based programs for home users, freelancers, and small companies are likely to be United Internet’s growth drivers over the coming years – both as stand-alone products in the Consumer Applications and Business Applications segments, as well as in combination with landline and mobile access products in our Consumer Access segment.
Participation in market growth
Despite the uncertain macroeconomic conditions, United Internet – as well as many of the sector’s leading analysts – expects further progress in those markets of importance to the Company. United Internet is one of the leading players in these markets. At home and abroad. With its highly competitive Access products, its growing portfolio of cloud applications, its strong and specialized brands, its high sales strength, and already established business relationships with millions of private and business customers (cross-selling and up-selling potential), United Internet is also well positioned to participate in the expected market growth of both its business divisions.
Expansion of market positions
United Internet AG is now one of the leaders in many of its business fields. Based on its existing technological know-how, its high level of product and service quality, the widespread popularity of Group brands such as 1&1, GMX or WEB.DE, its business relationships with millions of private and business customers, and its high customer retention ratio, United Internet sees good opportunities to build on its current market shares.
Entry into new business fields
One of United Internet's core competencies is to recognize customer wishes, trends, and thus new markets at an early stage. With its broadly based value chain (from product development and data center operation, to effective marketing, powerful sales organization, and active customer support), United Internet is often faster at placing innovations on the market and – thanks to the high level of cash generation in its existing business fields – capable of providing them with strong marketing support.
Use of artificial intelligence (AI)
The potential of AI applications is immense, particularly in the IT sector. United Internet uses AI to optimize processes and increase efficiency, for example by automating routine tasks in software development, customer service and marketing as well as for the analysis of large data volumes.
However, there are also many opportunities at product level for companies such as United Internet to use AI to optimize existing products for their customers or to develop new products in the field of AI in order to acquire new customers and increase customer loyalty. For example, IONOS helps its customers build their websites with the aid of an AI website generator. This enables customers to independently generate website suggestions in a matter of seconds based on just a few details (such as sector and relevant keywords) – AI takes care of the design, images, texts, and search engine optimization.
Extending vertical integration: own landline infrastructure
Since its acquisition of 1&1 Versatel (2014), United Internet operates its own telecommunications network, which is being constantly expanded. With a current length of over 61,000 km, it is one of Germany’s largest fiber-optic networks. This network infrastructure gives United Internet the opportunity to extend its vertical integration and also gradually reduce its purchases of wholesale broadband services for the B2C segment.
In addition, having its own network also offers United Internet the opportunity to systematically expand its B2B data and infrastructure business with SMEs and large corporations. The scale of this opportunity is underlined by the considerable pent-up demand for direct fiber-optic connections in Germany. According to the latest survey of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) in December 2022, only 9.2% (end of 2021: 7.1%) of all broadband connections in Germany are fiber-optic connections. Germany therefore still lags well behind in 36 th place among the 38 OECD countries surveyed, and is well below the leaders Korea (88.0%), Japan (84.8%), and Spain (83.1%), as well as below the OECD average of 37.7 % (end of 2021: 34.3% ) .
Extending vertical integration: rollout of own mobile communications network
With the launch of mobile services in 1&1’s mobile network in December 2023, United Internet’s subsidiary 1&1 established the key prerequisites for extending its vertical integration in this market segment – as in the landline segment. 1&1 has since been producing advance services for new customers in its own network. Wherever 1&1 does not yet have sufficient network coverage during the network rollout, it uses the national roaming advance services of Telefónica. As of summer 2024, these national roaming advance services are to be provided by Vodafone. National roaming is a standard procedure used in the rollout of new mobile networks that enables customers to surf and make calls without interruption in areas not yet covered during the construction phase of the new network. This is achieved by automatically using the roaming partner’s antennas in these areas.
Until the launch of mobile services on its own network, 1&1 had extensive access to Telefónica’s mobile network in Germany (as a so-called MBA MVNO) and also used capacities from other advance service providers such as Vodafone. As of the beginning of 2024, 1&1’s existing customers on these third-party networks are being gradually migrated to the 1&1 mobile network in order to increasingly replace the purchase of advance services from third parties and instead use internally produced advance services.
Despite the initial delay in the rollout of antenna locations, 1&1 is still pursuing its goal of covering a quarter of German households by the end of 2025 and half by the end of 2030. To this end, additional partners have been acquired for the network rollout. The company therefore expects to make up for the delays in the course of the rollout phase.
High degree of vertical integration for applications
In its Applications segment, United Internet covers the entire value creation chain. Applications are developed at the Company’s own “Internet Factories” or in cooperation with partner firms and operated on over 100,000 servers at the Company’s 11 own data centers and 21 co-locations. This enables United Internet to maintain high quality standards and to respond quickly to customer needs and changing market situations in order to win new customers and retain existing ones.
Internationalization
Cloud applications can be used anywhere in the world and work on the same principle in Frankfurt as they do in London, Rome, or New York. In the past, United Internet has already successfully adapted cloud products many times to various languages and country-specific features and gradually rolled them out in different nations.
Thanks to the high degree of exportability which these products offer, United Internet is already active in its Applications segment in numerous European countries (Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Sweden), as well as in North America (USA, Canada, and Mexico). Further countries and product rollouts will gradually follow.
Acquisitions and investments
In addition to organic growth, United Internet also constantly examines the possibility of company acquisitions and strategic investments. Thanks to its high and plannable level of free cash flow, United Internet also has a strong source of internal funding and good access to debt financing markets in order to utilize opportunities in the form of acquisitions and investments.
United Internet has enhanced its market standing in Germany and abroad, for example, by making several acquisitions and strategic investments while gaining considerable expertise in the field of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and company integration. The most important M&A activities of the past include the acquisition of WEB.DE’s portal business (in 2005), the acquisitions of Fasthosts (2006) and united-domains (2008), the acquisition of freenet’s broadband business (2009), and the acquisitions of mail.com (2010), Arsys (2013), Versatel (2014; now 1&1 Versatel), home.pl (2015), STRATO (2017), ProfitBricks (2017; now IONOS Cloud), Drillisch (2017; now 1&1), World4You (2018), and we22 (2021). The most important strategic investments include the investments in Open-Xchange (2013), uberall (2014), Tele Columbus (2016), rankingCoach (2017), AWIN (2017; via the contribution of affilinet), and Stackable (2021).
Management Board’s overall assessment of the Group’s opportunity position
In view of its broad positioning in current growth markets, the Company’s growth opportunities are clearly apparent: universally accessible, permanently available, and increasingly powerful broadband connections are enabling new and more sophisticated cloud applications. From the current perspective, these internet-based programs for home users, freelancers, and small companies are likely to be United Internet’s growth drivers over the coming years – both as stand-alone products in the Consumer Applications and Business Applications segments, as well as in combination with landline and mobile access products in the Consumer Access segment. Based predominantly on electronic subscriptions with fixed monthly amounts and contractually agreed terms, United Internet’s business model ensures stable and plannable revenue and cash flows. Against this backdrop, the Company’s Management Board is convinced that it will continue to be in a position to deal successfully with challenges and seize opportunities.