Image Protect Inc (OTCMKTS:IMTL) is a tiny sub-penny stock that could be very easy to overlook. But it’s also tremendously interesting if you take the time to understand what the company is trying to do. It’s nothing short of a revolutionary gambit to create a brand new global programmatic ad marketplace and simultaneously solve the IP conundrum surrounding online digital images in one fell swoop. That introduces a ton of upside potential for IMTL shares if the company is able to execute on this ambitious playbook. Naturally, the difficulty in that step is why the stock is still trading sub-penny. But recent news from the company suggests the odds are tipping in the right direction.
To understand the situation, we have to first introduce the “Fotofy Image Marketplace”, which is a platform for image uploading, in-image advertisement, and the free sharing and use of high-quality online digital images. So far, since the launch, the company has been seeing enormous traction on Fotofy. In fact, IMTL just announced this morning that the “images submitted” data point on the Fotofy platform in October is on pace for 3,840% sequential month/month growth.
Image Protect Inc (OTCMKTS:IMTL), for a little background, has been working on a solution based on the integration of in-image advertising and image sharing online. If you own the rights to a digital image and others want to use it, you can try to get them to pay for it. But that’s not easy in the fast and free open ocean of the internet, where piracy is rampant and tough to stop.
To solve this, the company has created a marketplace where image owners can offer up their images for free use and sharing, to monetize them over time through in-image advertising. The platform launched in early August. And, as shown above, the reception by image owners and image users has been extremely robust.
In pulling off this traction, the company has had to execute on a series of key steps, which it would appear to have handled very well thus far.
“Our progress to date on Fotofy following the launch has been ahead of schedule in every respect, and the platform has found huge traction in terms of image uploads and free image sharing,” stated Matt Goldman, CEO of Image Protect. “Now that we have launched the analytics dashboard and ad network, and have completed development on the programmatic ad exchange set to launch in a couple weeks, the path from here to tangible revenue growth is very clear and well within reach.”
Where to Next
According to the release, management points to several developments as most significant in advancing shareholder value since the Fotofy launch in August.
Namely, it has launched a digital analytics dashboard for image owners to track use and sharing, installed and deployed a top-down central analytics facility for management of network, negotiated back-end ad placement with a top digital ad firm, and finished development work on a proprietary programmatic ad exchange.
Looking ahead, the company plans to begin monetizing this progress once it has achieved a couple of key goals: 1. Upload the first one million images to Fotofy, and 2. Generate a run rate of over one million sharing events per month.
Once those goals have been achieved, the Fotofy Ad Network will become a significant factor in driving near-term revenue growth.
“Digital ad market growth is undeniably a significant factor for understanding our outlook,” continued Mr. Goldman. “Our research suggests that the space has become a $300B-plus marketplace, and of course we are firmly engaged in a global scaling process. Once we flip the switch and start banking ad revs, we will instantly be in every market on the planet. Given the stunning acceleration in image submissions and image sharing we are seeing since late September, it really may not be much longer until we can start the process.”
