By Erika Icon

YNOT EUROPE – 2012 could very well be the year of Joey Gabra. Late last year he accepted the position of managing director at Affil4You, a subsidiary of Paris-based mobile services provider Wister. A few months later, Affil4You won a major industry award.

Now, Gabra and his company have been nominated for three YNOT Awards, including a personal nomination for Gabra in the Best Adult Company Rep category.

Knowing little about Joey Gabra, I was intrigued to know more. I was impressed by his honesty and openness, and you will be, too.

How did you get into the adult industry?
Joey Gabra: From 1999 to 2003, I started working in basic online marketing and [search engine optimization], primarily focusing on the music industry. In 2004, I was approached by a company called Juicy Entertainment and helped them launch their adult social network called AdultSpace.com. This company already owned a small, but successful, network of adult pay sites and dating sites at the time, so I spent a lot time working on those, as well.

After about three years of working with AdultSpace, I was approached by Twistbox Entertainment, an adult and mainstream mobile entertainment company. This was my introduction to the world of mobile, and it was love at first sight. I loved everything about the mobile industry, and I was so excited about the direction it was heading.

Two years later, Twistbox merged with American Mobile Ventures, a company based in England, and they shipped me over to work in the UK office for two more years. It was there where I became the manager of a team of eight marketing guys and really began to make my presence known in our fun little industry. The rest is history.

You just returned from Qwebec Expo. How was that?
Qwebec Expo was awesome. I didn’t know that much about it, so I went in with somewhat low expectations. It turned out to be one of the best shows I’ve been to so far. It was perfectly intimate and extremely well organized. I give a lot of credit to [Chief Executive Officer Michael Plant] for putting such a cool little event together. I was able to get a good amount of face time with a lot of people, and the speed networking event was the best I’ve ever been a part of. I’ll definitely be going back every year.

Can you explain how Affil4You works?
Affil4You is an award-winning program, where anyone with mobile traffic can go to monetize that traffic. In so many cases, there are lots of adult website owners who have mobile traffic that they can’t monetize because they simply don’t have a mobile-optimized solution. Affil4You resolves that issue for them. We have a solution that allows these webmasters, owners or ad networks — or anyone else with traffic — a way to isolate and redirect that mobile traffic to our solution, so we can monetize a commodity that otherwise would go to waste.

We have the ability to create a white labeled version of any offer a company has, and that ability is integrated with our award-winning mobile billing solution.

Mobile billing solutions are essential when dealing with mobile traffic. In most cases, mobile billing is up to 10 times more effective than standard credit card solutions. Affil4You is connected with mobile network carriers in countries all over the world so that we can provide end-users with the most efficient and convenient way to purchase adult, and/or dating content.

Your company won an award for Mobile Service Company of the Year earlier this year. How did that feel?
It was such a great feeling, and such an amazing way to start the year. We love our industry, and we have such a great respect for all the companies we were up against for that award. In years past, Affil4You has maintained a strong, but low, profile, as the company was mainly focused on slow and steady growth and developing the optimal mobile solution for all our affiliates and clients. So, when we won that award, it was validation for all our hard work, and it proves that slow and steady does win the race. Winning the award could not have happened at a better time for us, as it was my mission to make the year 2012 the biggest and best year for us, and so far it truly has been our biggest and best.

Affil4You signed on as the Diamond Sponsor for the 2012 YNOT Awards. Why?
First and foremost, we have a huge amount of respect for the people in our industry and the industry as whole. Sponsoring the YNOT Awards was not only a great way to promote our brand, but also another good way to bring a lot of us together for a fun night out and give thanks to our peers — and of course to the team at YNOT.

We are also sponsoring several of the other events occurring in Europe and the UK, so there is obviously a major interest for us to let people know who we are and that we now play a major role in the adult mobile movement.

What new services or apps does Affil4You plan to roll out in the immediate future?
As far as what I can mention for now, we will be launching our mobile solution in several new countries. While this is happening, we are also planning to launch our new mobile cams services. We are also getting ready to launch version 2.0 of our affiliate platform, which is going to be awesome. The new platform will ensure that all our affiliates and clients are truly getting the best user experience and are able to take full advantage of all our great services to gain maximum potential out of their mobile traffic.

Some people feel affiliates are a dying breed. What do you say?
I don’t necessarily agree with that. I think the business has just shifted and changed a lot, so the idea of what a typical affiliate once was has also shifted and changed.

I think maybe there are still a few people out there who are a little less willing to change. Those who say affiliates are a dying breed may just need to catch up with things a bit.

What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in the industry?
For starters, I think the some of the biggest changes that I am aware of would be the rapidly growing usage of and dependency on mobile and tablets. I don’t know that this is the biggest change, but from where I sit everyday, it’s huge.

I’ve also noticed that porn is becoming so much more widely accepted into our mainstream culture over the past few years.

What is the biggest accomplishment of your career to date?
On a personal level, I think that joining the team at Affil4You was a pretty big deal for me. I couldn’t be happier. On a business level, my biggest accomplishment would be my contribution to the expansion of this company. Being nominated and winning awards means I must be doing something right, doesn’t it?

What’s in the future for Joey Gabra?
I honestly try not to plan too far into the future, because that never really works out for me. My greatest successes have occurred when I focus more on what’s happening right now. Although, I would like to rule the world someday. But don’t tell anyone!

Gabra welcomes questions and enjoys discussing the mobile market. Contact by email.