1. Group and company profile

1.1 Business model

Group structure

Founded in 1998 and based in Montabaur, Germany, United Internet AG (“United Internet”) is the parent company of the United Internet Group.

Together with its service company United Internet Corporate Services GmbH, United Internet AG focuses mainly on centralized functions in the areas of Finance, Corporate Controlling & Accounting, Tax, Investment Management, Press Relations, Investor Relations, Legal, Corporate Governance, Compliance & Sustainability, Risk Management, Corporate Audit, HR Management, Facility Management, Procurement, and Corporate IT.

Compared to the previous year, the Group structure as of December 31, 2024 is largely unchanged from the previous year.

Operating activities in the Consumer Access segment are mainly managed by the companies Drillisch Online GmbH and 1&1 Telecom GmbH under the umbrella of 1&1 AG.

In its Business Access segment, United Internet mainly operates via 1&1 Versatel Deutschland GmbH, held by the holding company United Internet Management Holding SE via 1&1 Versatel GmbH.

Operating activities in the Consumer Applications segment are primarily managed via the companies 1&1 Mail & Media GmbH, 1&1 Mail & Media Inc., and United Internet Media GmbH, pooled together under 1&1 Mail & Media Applications SE.

In its Business Applications segment, United Internet is primarily active via its shares in STRATO GmbH and its subsidiary Cronon GmbH – held by the holding companies IONOS Group SE and IONOS Holding SE – as well as in IONOS SE and its main domestic and foreign subsidiaries. These include – in addition to the foreign subsidiaries IONOS Inc. (USA), IONOS Cloud Ltd. (UK), IONOS S.A.R.L. (France), and IONOS Cloud S.L.U. (Spain) – in particular Arsys Internet S.L.U. (Spain), Fasthosts Internet Ltd. (UK), home.pl S.A. (Poland), the German companies InterNetX GmbH, Sedo GmbH, united-domains GmbH, and we22 GmbH, as well as World4You Internet Services GmbH (Austria).

In addition to these operating and fully consolidated subsidiaries, United Internet held a number of other investments as of December 31, 2024. These mainly consist of equity interests – held by United Internet Investments Holding AG & Co. KG – in Kublai GmbH, Frankfurt am Main (4.71%), which in turn holds 95.39% of shares in Tele Columbus AG, Berlin, and investments in the strategic partners Open-Xchange AG, Cologne (25.39%), rankingCoach GmbH, Cologne (31.52%), uberall GmbH, Berlin (25.10%), and AWIN AG, Berlin (20.00%), as well as the investment in Stackable GmbH, Pinneberg (27.54%) held by IONOS SE.

Further details on these investments and changes in investments are provided in chapter 2.2 “Business development” under “Group investments”.

A simplified illustration of the Group structure of United Internet with its significant operating subsidiaries and investments – as of December 31, 2024 – is shown in the following chart.

Business operations

With around 29 million fee-based customer contracts and around 39 million ad-financed free accounts, United Internet is one of Europe’s leading internet specialists.

The Group’s operating business is divided into the business divisions “Access” and “Applications”, which in turn are divided into the segments “Consumer Access” and “Business Access”, as well as “Consumer Applications” and “Business Applications”.

Consumer Access segment

The Consumer Access segment comprises landline-based broadband products (including the respective applications, such as home networks, online storage, Smart Home, IPTV, and video-on-demand), as well as mobile internet products for private users.

These internet access products are offered to customers as subscription contracts with fixed monthly fees (and variable, volume-based charges).

With its broadband products under the 1&1 brand (especially VDSL/vectoring and fiber-optic connections), United Internet is one of Germany’s leading suppliers.

The Company uses 1&1 Versatel’s fiber-optic network as the transport network for VDSL/vectoring connections and direct fiber-optic connections (FTTH) with the “last mile” being provided by city carriers and Deutsche Telekom (mainly Layer-2).

United Internet is also one of the leading providers of mobile internet products in Germany.

1&1 has a fully functional mobile communications network which is being permanently expanded. Wherever 1&1 does not yet have sufficient mobile coverage during the years of network expansion, it uses national roaming. A national roaming partnership with Vodafone started in late August 2024. National roaming via Vodafone will be available for all 1&1 mobile customers until the end of 2025. At the same time, national roaming services previously procured from Telefónica will be completely phased out.

Until more than 12 million existing customer contracts have been fully migrated to the 1&1 mobile network, 1&1 will also partially use the Telefónica mobile network as a so-called Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), as well as MVNO capacities of Vodafone. As of the beginning of 2024, the existing MVNO customers are being gradually migrated to the 1&1 mobile network. The migration is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

Mobile internet products are marketed via the premium brand 1&1 as well as via discount brands, such as winSIM and yourfone, which enable the Company to target a wide range of specific user groups in the mobile communications market.

Business Access segment

In the Business Access segment, 1&1 Versatel offers a wide range of telecommunication products and solutions for business customers.

The core of the business model is a fiber-optic network with a length of over 66,000 km, which is one of the largest networks in Germany a nd is constantly being expanded.

1&1 Versatel uses this network to offer telecommunication products – from standardized fiber-optic direct connections to tailored ICT solutions (voice, data and network solutions) – to companies and local authorities. In addition, the 1&1 fiber-optic network is used to provide 1&1 DSL and FTTH connections and to connect antenna locations. Infrastructure services (wholesale) for national and international carriers are also provided.

Consumer Applications segment

Applications for home users are pooled in the Consumer Applications segment. These mainly comprise Personal Information Management applications (e-mail, to-do lists, appointments, addresses), online storage (cloud), and office software.

By steadily developing this portfolio over the past years, the GMX and WEB.DE brands – the most widely used e-mail providers for German consumers for many years now – have been expanded into complete command centers for communication, information, and identity management.

Applications for home users are nearly all developed in-house and operated at the Group’s own data centers. Products are offered as fee-based subscriptions (pay accounts) or – for free – in the form of ad-financed free accounts. These free accounts are monetized via classic – but increasingly also via data-driven – online advertising, which is marketed by United Internet Media.

With its ad-financed applications and fee-based consumer applications, United Internet is primarily active via GMX and WEB.DE in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, where it is among the leading players. International expansion in this segment is being driven via the mail.com brand. In addition to the USA, mail.com targets countries such as the UK, France, and Spain.

Business Applications segment

In the Business Applications segment, IONOS opens up online business opportunities for freelancers and SMEs, while also helping them to digitize their processes. It offers a comprehensive range of powerful applications, such as domains, websites, web hosting, servers, e-shops, group work, online storage (cloud), and office software, which can be used via subscription agreements. In addition, cloud solutions and cloud infrastructure are offered.

These business applications are developed at in-house development centers or in cooperation with partner firm s.

IONOS is also a leading global player in this segment with activities in various European countries (Germany, France, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Sweden) as well as in North America (the USA, Canada, Mexico).

Business applications are marketed to specific target groups via the brands IONOS, Arsys, Fasthosts, home.pl, InterNetX, STRATO, united-domains, and World4You. In addition, Sedo offers professional services in the field of active domain management, while we22 offers other hosting suppliers a white-label website builder for the creation of high-quality websites.

Divisions, segments and brands (as of: December 31, 2024)

Management

The Management Board of United Internet AG comprised the following members in the fiscal year 2024:

Management Board members as at December 31, 2024

• Ralph Dommermuth, founder and Chief Executive Officer
  (with the Company since1988)


• Ralf Hartings, Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
  (with the United Internet Group since 2021; until December 31, 2024)


• Markus Huhn, Management Board member responsible for Shared Services
  (with the United Internet Group since 1994)

New Management Board member since January 1, 2025

• Carsten Theurer, Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
  (with the Company since January 1, 2025)

Ralf Hartings, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of United Internet AG, stepped down from his position as a member of the Management Board of United Internet AG at his own request as of December 31, 2024. With effect from January 1, 2025, Carsten Theurer is Ralf Harting’s successor as CFO of United Internet AG. Carsten Theurer previously worked in various divisions of the Schwarz Group for over 20 years, in his last position as Group CFO. In these roles, he accompanied the international growth of the Schwarz Group in the retail sector and played a key role in setting up the company's own production companies.

The Supervisory Board of United Internet AG comprised the following members in the fiscal year 2024:

Supervisory Board members as at December 31, 2024

• Philipp von Bismarck, Chairman
  (member since July 2020; Chairman since May 2021; member of the Audit and Risk Committee since May 2021)


• Dr. Manuel Cubero del Castillo-Olivares, Deputy Chairman
  (member since May 2020; Deputy Chairman since May 2021)


• Stefan Rasch
  (member since May 2021; member of the Audit and Risk Committee since May 2021)


• Prof. Dr. Franca Ruhwedel
  (member since May 2023; Chairwoman of the Audit and Risk Committee since January 2024)


• Prof. Dr. Yasmin Mei-Yee Weiss
  (member since July 2020)

Departed in the fiscal year 2024

• Prof. Dr. Andreas Söffing
  (member from May 2021 to July 2024)

Main markets and competitive standing

Germany is the most important sales market of the United Internet Group by far and accounted for almost 90% of total global sales in the fiscal year 2024.

Besides Germany, the Group’s most important sales markets are

• the USA,
• the UK,
• Spain,
• France,
• Poland, and
• Austria.

Competitive standing in the Consumer Access segment

Following the merger with Drillisch AG (now 1&1 AG) in 2017, United Internet is the fourth force in Germany’s telecommunications market with landline and mobile products in its purely domestic Consumer Access segment – based on customer contracts and sales revenues – after Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, and Telefónica Germany.

Competitive standing in the Business Access segment

United Internet is also a leading company in its Business Access segment, whose operations are also limited to Germany. With the fiber-optic network of 1&1 Versatel spanning over 66,000 km, United Internet operates one of Germany’s largest fiber-optic networks.

Competitive standing in the Consumer Applications segment

In its Consumer Applications segment, United Internet operates in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria via the GMX and WEB.DE brands, as well as in countries such as the USA, UK, France, and Spain via the international brand mail.com. United Internet is the leading provider of e-mail services and one of the leaders in cloud services in its domestic German market – based on the number of users.

Competitive standing in the Business Applications segment

In the globally aligned Business Applications segment, United Internet is active in a total of 18 countries with its hosting and cloud applications. The Company has long been the market leader in the German hosting business – based on the number of managed country domains – and strengthened its position in 2017 with the takeover of its competitor STRATO. In other European countries, United Internet’s hosting applications are now available in all major markets – either locally or from Germany. In addition to the domestic German market, these mainly include the major European economies of France, the UK, Italy, Poland, and Spain. With the exception of Italy, the Company is one of the leading suppliers – measured by the number of managed country domains – in the aforementioned countries. All in all, therefore, United Internet is also one of Europe’s leading hosting providers – based on the number of managed country domains. Further target markets outside Europe are the North American countries Canada, USA, and Mexico. In the most important of these markets, the USA, United Internet is also one of the leading players in this segment – based on the number of managed country domains.

From a global perspective, United Internet is thus also one of the leading companies in the hosting business.

Main locations

As of December 31, 2024, the United Internet Group employed a total of 10,972 people worldwide at around 40 domestic and foreign facilities.

Main locations (by headcount; > 50 employees)