Interview with Dmitriy Zaretskiy, General Manager, Iqoption Europe LTD
February 19, 2016
IQ Option appeared as a broker in the arena of binary options trading only in 2013, but is already a leader in the industry. It’s an undisputed success. What factors contributed to this success?
When I looked at the leading broker in early 2013, I realised that it was more than enough of an opportunity for us to occupy leadership position. Back then the market consisted, as it does now, of multiple platforms: SpotOption, TechFinancials, Tradologic, and a couple of websites developed by brokers. It was clear how catastrophically underdeveloped the market was in comparison with forex trading, even though the market had already been around for at least 5 years. So we just took the best from the ‘mature markets’: a demo account, a minimum deposit amount, and began to build a convenient platform with analytics. But the main factor, I think, it’s my personal commitment to focus on one business, aiming to lead. I started to gather unique people, and we realized that we had a terrific product. And then the first deposits started to come in and and we started getting rave reviews, so we just flew on the wings of success.
| You have set a minimum deposit of $10. Why was it decided to go with this exact amount?
As I mentioned, we looked at the Forex market and poker, and so on. It makes no sense to put more than the minimum amount, and then squeeze out the deposit from the registration. In fact, all of our competitors are not really competitors as far as we are concerned. They do TELEMARKETING, which in reality is just selling a ‘cat in a bag’ as it were, the old bait and switch. Originally, we did not know how to put pressure on our users, but moreover we didn’t want to deceive them. That’s why we had no choice but to make an unbelievable product. Your company is growing rapidly. You have global plans. How do you envision the future development of IQ Option? I see the introduction of new types of options in our future. It is constantly asked for by our users. We want to develop IQ Option as a tool not only for high-risk trading, but also to give the opportunity to invest with less risk, to bet on long-term trends. We will introduce a kind of social media trading. We will allow traders to communicate with each other, and we will even pay our users just for the popularity of their accounts. |
Dmitriy Zaretskiy, General Manager, Iqoption Europe LTD. |
Many are interested in the average longevity of customers in trading. So what is the average lifespan of customer trading on the IQ Option platform? What customer loyalty programs do you use?
On average, of course, the client’s life is much shorter than in the Forex market — now it is about 6 months. I think they just get bored and tired, but we cannot develop new trading tools, because all of our energy is focused on providing quality service to our rapidly growing user audience. Our loyalty program is VIP accounts, but we are already testing Trader Levels, which will automatically return a portion of the broker commission — the higher the level, the more of the commission returns to the trader’s account.
You always keep up with the times and it is well known that you use an incentive scheme within the company. Please tell us more about it and how do you feel about these incentives in general? Do companies need non-financial recognition these days, or is this just the vestiges of the past?
I believe that in this matter we are ahead of the rest of the world. Truly, without false modesty. Now we have 103 people working in our wow-office, and they all love working here. We pay bonuses in the form of extra salary when the quarterly targets are reached, and we are constantly organising large corporate events offsite. By the way, after the second quarter of 2015, we are all going to Cyprus for a brainstorming session on the development of the company. And be sure, we not only know how to work, we know how to let loose as well. Non-financial recognition is always working. Every Friday, our teams present their projects on the stage of our wow-office. On many issues we are the first in the world. It is not only a trading platform — you’ll be amazed when you’ll see the next version. It’s something never before seen — but it’s also marketing, it is a video advertising, it’s back-end solutions. We have very strong people whose potential we are fully and constantly unleashing.
It’s clear that your platform is the most innovative in the industry. How were you able to take up this position in an environment where every competitor is aiming to be on the cutting edge of modern technology? Where do you get your inspiration to come up with something new?
Speaking of competition, I would not call it that. They take a simple platform that had already been developed by someone else, and simply start CALLING their customers on the phone. Where we will really compete is not with binary options, but with forex and the whole trading world itself. And in this area, we will have the best solution in the world as well. We’re just lucky to have good people. Russian developers, they are just brilliant, it’s true. I draw inspiration from books, I read biographies. But when it comes to our product and marketing, I certainly draw inspiration in the market. As you know, good artists copy, and brilliant ones simply steal.
The list of your accomplishments is quite extensive. Which of them do you consider the most important at the moment?
My most important accomplishment is having put together a unique and motivated team which simply is radiating success. When Facebook comes to us, they are constantly telling us, “We have not seen this anywhere else.”
One of the strengths of the IQ Option is definitely your own affiliate program. At what point did you realise the need for creating it, and how did it come to be?
All of my business career has been engaged in affiliate programs, and I know how huge this source of traffic really is. I understand what our affiliates want — money, of course — that’s why from the very beginning I knew that I would have an affiliate program. Affiliates always want to work with the best of industry. Sure, it’s pretty hard to assure everybody that our revshare is much more than a mythical CPA, but once an affiliate starts working with us, his eyes became big and round. He’s amazed.
Why did you decide to give your affiliates such unconventional offers? What made you do away with the usual offers of 350 CPA?
We have a different business model — we do not set a minimum deposit. That’s how an experienced affiliate sees the situation when he’s aiming for efficiency. He is splitting his traffic between the competition and watching to see which partner will pay more for 1,000 unique registrations. So this is the main specification, it’s the bottom line. Because he wants to be on the top and that’s where we lift him.
Your future plans are global in scope. What are these plans in relation to the development of the affiliate program? Are there any concrete strategic goals?
Our goal is to break a popular belief, which is insisting that CPA is a good thing, and that the higher the value of the CPA, the better. Webmasters want CPA? We gave them CPA of $10,000! But once again, the most important thing is the profit which is brought by this traffic, not these numbers themselves. And not even the money which can be seen on admin panel. The most important thing is what will be transferred to our affiliate’s account in the end. We’re leaders in that bottom line. And it’s like a mission of enlightenment for us!
We know that your affiliates can undoubtedly be called successful businesspeople. And of course, everybody wants to know just how successful they really are. Could you share some specific examples?
First of all, I would like to point out that the achievements of our affiliates speaks of their professionalism and faith in a better future for the industry. This is quite true, because we are changing the picture of what an affiliate program and trading platform should really look like. We get a lot of comments about our affiliates bringing more profit from us than all other brokers with whom they work in parallel. Success is a subjective concept, but if you talk about something material, I know that within the first few months of working with us, one of our affiliates bought a car he had long dreamed of, and another affiliate’s website has reached the top in the search engines thanks to a very good review of our platform.
Despite the relatively young age of IQ Option as a broker, you already have a wealth of experience. What advice would you give to future affiliates who have not yet begun to work with you?
They should start working and give us a try, compare us with others, discover for themselves why they should stay with us, and tell everybody about us! They should come to our groovy parties, like this one in Amsterdam! Spread the news and become a part of our team! Some people believe that the ones who have worked on something from the very beginning get the cream of the crop, and latecomers will get only a small part, if any. This is not so. Technology and the world itself are developing very rapidly. For example, the trend right now is mobile advertising. You should realise that this equates to millions of customers around the world that can bring a lot of profit to you. And so, we have the best mobile apps. Take your links and make your money. Also, we are still in search of the top super-affiliates. So you can occupy this niche, introduce us to new affiliates, and also get the highest percentages in the industry.
While building the company, you probably relied on some philosophy and used various aspects of business psychology. What are your personal views on business?
My views on business are described by two basic principles:
- Do what you’re doing very well, and do not be distracted by what is not your business.
- The client is the one who pays the money, he needs to be pleased. Give it your best effort, but your client should be pleased. And then you’ll be successful. It’s a rule for any business.
A few words about the people behind your platform. Please say something about the experts who drafted it, and those who now support its flawless functionality 24×7.
Well, I wouldn’t say it’s flawless. Problems happen sometimes, but our users understand and forgive us for some technical glitches because we work very hard and do our best for them. Our employees are people. I could talk for hours about everyone who’s been working here for more than a year. This is a team of superstars, and we’re all working on the cutting edge of technology.