BLIK sums up 2021: over 24,1 million EUR in revenues
In 2021, the Polish Payment Standard (PSP), operator of the BLIK mobile payment system, recorded a net profit for the second year in a row. In the reporting period, it amounted to PLN 31.7 million (EUR 6.7 million). The company's revenues increased by 60% year-on-year, reaching PLN 112.8 million (EUR 24.1 million). The operating result, in turn, increased by over 40% to PLN 38.8 million (EUR 8.3 million). In 2021, the BLIK operator conducted advanced activities aimed at both new and existing users. At the end of December, a record 21.6 million active mobile applications were able to use BLIK, which is an increase of 28% compared to 2020.
The results achieved last year give us reasons to be satisfied, but we still see great potential for further growth. We focus our attention on expanding the range of services and consistently increasing the number of active users, so as to further strengthen our market position in the coming quarters. The increase in the volume of transactions, which we observed in 2021, but also at the beginning of this year, allows us to believe that we are on the right track in achieving our goal. In the near future, we will focus on expanding contactless payments, introducing new innovative services, including those in the "Buy-now-pay-later" category, further education of the payment market in the area of payment security, as well as expanding our operations outside Poland. This will be possible thanks to cooperation with banks, local and global payment providers, and fintechs available on the market
- says Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, CEO of the Polish Payment Standard, BLIK operator.
BLIK makes a profit for the second year in a row
In 2021, the Polish Payment Standard recorded a significant, 60% increase in revenues, which amounted to PLN 112.8 million (EUR 24.1 million). It is worth adding that a year earlier, the company achieved a result of PLN 70.6 million (EUR 15.1 million) in this respect.
The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the years 2015-2021 was 72%, while operating costs in 2021 reached PLN 74 million (EUR 15.8 million). This was mainly influenced by the costs of external services, which was the result of launching marketing activities aimed at increasing the number of transactions and acquiring BLIK users.
The operating result of the PPS (EBIT, i.e. profit before tax and financial costs) in 2021 was PLN 38.8 million (EUR 8.3 million), compared to PLN 27 million (EUR 5.8 million) a year earlier. In turn, EBITDA (result before tax, financial costs and depreciation) amounted to PLN 42.5 million (EUR 9.1 million) in 2021, compared to PLN 30.5 million (EUR 6.5 million) in 2020.
PPS's net profit in 2021 reached PLN 31.7 million (EUR 6.7 million), compared to PLN 36 million (EUR 7.7 million) a year earlier. The decrease is the result of a one-off recognition of a deferrsset.
Dynamic increase in transactionality
BLIK, as a universal system, is available to all users of mobile banking applications in Poland. At the end of 2021, over 10 million people were actively using it. From January to December last year, BLIK recorded 763 million transactions, the value of which reached PLN 103 billion (EUR 22 billion) - compared to PLN 207.5 billion (EUR 44.5 billion) since the system was launched in 2015. Compared to the previous year, there was an increase of approx. 80% in the number of transactions and about 82% in relation to their value.
Currently, customers can pay with BLIK on the entire Polish Internet and a growing number of global e-commerce platforms. With the BLIK code, they can make payments at about 830,000 payment terminals and contactless payments in about 1.123 million, as well as in over 21,000 ATMs. In addition, BLIK users can use it to transfer money to a phone number, as well as set up recurring payments. The existing range of solutions offered by the BLIK mobile payment system from the fourth quarter of 2021 is also supplemented by contactless payments. The service is currently available to customers of 6 banks - Alior Bank, ING Bank, Bank Millennium, mBank, PKO BP and Santander Bank Polska. Since the launch of the new function, it has already been activated by over 800,000 users.
In 2021, we consistently continued the strategy of educating and encouraging users to make the first transaction, as well as ensuring further loyalty in the form of consolidating the habit of paying with BLIK. At the same time, the introduction of contactless payments in the fourth quarter changed our communication, which from the moment of making this service available focuses more strongly on the complexity of BLIK as a friendly method of payment. Our activities significantly contributed to the achievement of our ambitious transaction goals and influenced the recognition of BLIK
- says Monika Król, Vice President of the Polish Payment Standard.
An increasingly stronger payment brand
Last year, the Polish Payment Standard also carried out sales support activities with key companies from the online sales market that made BLIK available in their stores. An important element influencing the increase in BLIK transactions was also the continuation of advertising cooperation with settlement agents and the promotion of this solution on their paywalls.
The increase in marketing expenditure is strongly correlated with our dynamic development. We actively conduct advertising campaigns, promotional campaigns and promote BLIK payments on the paywalls of settlement agents. Our efforts to promote BLIK are also strongly supported by the BLIKOMANIA lottery, which has been run for several years, in which more and more users are involved. We have no doubts that our actions bring mutual benefits. BLIK, thanks to its unique user experience and enormous popularity among users, really supports sellers in e-commerce. The platforms that provide this payment method record not only better results, but also an increase in customer satisfaction and their loyalty
- adds Monika Król
The result of the conducted campaigns are high parameters in terms of brand awareness (spontaneous 75%, assisted 97%, using BLIK 81%) and a very high tendency to recommend BLIK by users. The solution achieved a high NPS ratio of 58, with the average NPS score for banks being 15. BLIK is the strongest brand for mobile banking users and at the end of 2021 it was ahead of its global competitors (POWER BLIK index = 43.6%; VISA - 23 5%; Mastercard - 17.8%; Google Pay - 6.4%).
BLIK is a common standard for mobile payments. Currently, virtually every customer of domestic payment institutions offering a mobile application has the option of using BLIK in mobile banking applications. The company Polski Standard Płatności (PSP) is responsible for the development of the system. PSP is constantly developing BLIK's capabilities so that the system is as functional as possible for its users. The shareholders of PSP are: Alior Bank, Bank Millennium, Santander Bank Polska, ING Bank Śląski, mBank, PKO Bank Polski and Mastercard.
For additional information please contact:
Klaudia Rombalska
BLIK Press Office
E-mail: klaudia.rombalska@clearcom.pl
