Providing an accessible coupon platform to merchants and customers; Dicky Ying also tackles sustainability with Mezzofy, minimizing the use of paper consumed in coupons. ‘Our coupons are counted in billions, and it means billions of pieces of paper are saved. We wish to save thousands of billions of paper in future.’
Mezzofy began its journey in 2014 in Hong Kong as a POS and a stock-taking system which later on developed to what it is now - one of the leading digital coupon solution providers in Asia. A system that provides real-time information anytime and anywhere; from your receipts, coupons, loyalty cards and feedback. ‘Merchants can create, issue, distribute, redeem, and record their digital coupons with a mobile phone.’
In the beginning, they attained good traction with their download rate for their POS system. The digital coupon platform was an added value to the system but as it gained more attention overtime, it developed its way to being their core product. It has now been enhanced to be integrated to any POS as easily as possible.
Learning journey
As all startup entrepreneurs should know, adaptability in the business scene is one key to success and survival. Mezzofy was put to the test when presented with a challenge concerning the direction of their growth.
For a time, download rate was one of the KPIs that they laid heavy on originally. This was their motivation for offering their service free to download. But as results speak volumes, they came to find that focusing on this was not deemed to be sustainable overtime.
Cue in a vital startup reflex, they were quick on their feet to decide that they had to pivot their business model. They then responded by tying their revenue with subscription and transaction rate. ‘It's no point to give free service, not just because you cannot have revenue, but you will not feel the real need of the market.’
Development and success
Today, Dicky Ying leads Mezzofy together with three other founders. All leading in their field of profession in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and India. Built on trust and support from his co-founders he has now taken post as the CEO of the company. ‘I never force my way as the leader. I believe it is the followers to decide who is the leader. I am happy to lead as long as they are happy to follow.’
Mezzofy-powered coupons now garner a total face value of more than $12 billion HKD; continuing to serve SMEs and huge enterprises such as Shell, Hyatt, HK Electric and others. Proving that adapting brings forth great rewards and is reputed to be essential to developing businesses.