"We Are on the Verge of Radical Change" — PDD Already Media

Hi! It depends on what you consider affiliate marketing. The thing is, I've been doing SEO in one form or another since late 2010 — but whether that was strictly an affiliate model, probably not. At least because back then my responsibility was traffic, while the money side was handled by the client. If we're talking about the affiliate model specifically — where the success metric is revenue — that came a bit later, around 2015.

I've worked exclusively on projects focused on search traffic — I'm an SEO guy, and even when there was no SEO in place before me, I was brought in to build it. And beyond that, even when I wasn't doing SEO hands-on myself, it was still 90% organic and paid search traffic. As for scale — how do we measure it? By the number of pages and subdomains, there were some fairly large projects back at the agency, ranging from a Rozetka-style marketplace in Kazakhstan to an automotive portal with 90 subdomains. If we're talking budgets, things got serious in the essay niche, and the truly "interesting" ones were, of course, betting and iGaming. Sports — from what I can talk about publicly — I led the SEO for a top Ukrainian brand and all its international versions, both for the core products and all the "satellite" projects.

If I recall correctly, PageRank was deprecated when I was still at the agency or somewhere around that time — but I don't have any memory of things being "simple back then." I remember there were concerns about "how will everything work now," but even before that, it wasn't as straightforward as "pick a high-PR site and you're good" — rankings go up, traffic goes up. Or maybe it just felt that way because we were already measuring an SEO specialist's performance purely by traffic, not by link count. Link building and donor selection took time and required experimentation and analysis both before and after that change.

Ensures that traffic continues to be generated. And based on that, I have two parallel stories — well, not exactly parallel, since they often intersect. On one hand, it's building yet another team (it's no secret that we already have several), which will focus on Africa, as well as sourcing and analyzing new projects and products for potential cooperation in one form or another.

My focus is on Africa, but I'm not limited exclusively to that region — as I mentioned above, if an interesting project comes along, I first look at the project's potential for us, not the GEO. So when it comes to building something new — yes, that's most likely Africa, but if there's an interesting partner or a potential acquisition, the only constraint is the project's prospects, not the region.

I'd rather not talk about other teams and divisions — there's already plenty of information on that from our CEO and elsewhere. As for my team, which we started building relatively recently, I don't think the numbers are particularly interesting right now. Let's come back to this question in six months — I think it'll be a more compelling conversation by then.

It's reality. Just compare CPA rates in the US/Europe versus Africa — the difference can be as much as x10. But it all depends on your goals and your vision for the market's future.

If we're talking about approaches — about business, do the approaches to business differ? No, because the company has a single approach, a single CEO, no different processes or meeting cadences. There's a goal the company sets for itself, a strategy or path to achieving that goal, a conditional roadmap and the metrics we project to hit — and then it's business as usual: systematic plan-vs-actual comparisons, adjustments, decision-making. When it comes to the audience — we talked about purchasing power, and that's ARPU, which in turn affects LTV — that's worth factoring in. The average number of accounts per player is higher than in Europe across certain segments, and that's RR, which also impacts LTV. There are, of course, the specifics of how technical solutions penetrate the market (not just the fact that it's predominantly mobile, but which devices specifically), which shapes the look and technology stack of projects. There's also a higher level of digital socialization, which likewise dictates what needs to be accounted for in the Acquisition strategy.

Yes and no. Nothing fundamentally new has been invented in this region that SEOs have never heard of or seen before — ranking factors, site types, link types, and so on. But of course you need to analyze the TOP, look at who's there and how they got there. There are clusters where there's virtually no outreach at scale, where practically "fresh regs" with minimal link profiles rank, and there are clusters where it's all "by the book" — slow & expensive & heavy. So to put it briefly — yes, it differs (especially considering that before this I was working with the United States), but the difference lies in which sites are in the TOP and what's driving them there.

The standard set: English, French, Swahili. We're planning to cover more than 10 local languages.

Changes are happening constantly, the market keeps growing. It's fascinating to watch the penetration of artificial intelligence and the new areas of its application — not talking about data analysis, but about creating dealers and influencing live games. And if you think about VR/AR — while it's still a fairly expensive technology for the general population, as it becomes more affordable it could change the rules of the game. Increased regulation in the niche is a predictable trend: a number of countries have introduced licensing, others have significantly tightened it, which, incidentally, has fueled the growing popularity of the offshore segment. Most importantly, the share of mobile users is rising — the niche is confidently moving toward a mobile-first story. Though personally I still know many operators where more than half of their revenue comes from desktop users. New markets and technologies, and above all a younger population, will drive a "rethinking" and the emergence of fundamentally new approaches. I think 2025 could be a very interesting year — the pace of AI development is staggering, it replaces reality, and if you "cross it correctly" with the human desire for dopamine… the result could be an explosive mix. The pace of legalization and regulation in leading countries worldwide — both for the iGaming niche itself and for cryptocurrencies — could also lead to a major redistribution of the market among players. And then there's the continued growth of mobile technologies that are turning our phones into supercomputers and making them far more accessible to a vast mass of new potential users. It feels like we're standing on the threshold of fundamental change. Not acceleration and progress — but a radical rethinking. And that's exciting.

Different days look different, and I haven't managed to build an ideal schedule with clear rituals and a fixed routine just yet. In general, I try to stay focused on the big-picture goal — I even wrote it on a sticky note next to my workstation — and I constantly build and revisit a list of priority tasks that help me and my team work toward that goal. It's a kind of personal backlog where I write down everything that comes to mind: ideas and tasks alike. Then I analyze them and sort them into thematic folders: some go to ideas, others to tasks, some to the backlog of a specific project, and so on. Of course, there are crunch days when a lot needs to get done urgently. And there are days when I'm fully immersed in analyzing a project — researching, building models and P&L statements. Weekly meetings with the team and leadership are non-negotiable. Our leads act more as mentors — people you can consult with, bounce ideas off, and share both doubts and wins.

Honestly, no — you're the first to bring up that association. I'm firmly in the opposite camp.

It's mostly family, travel, and discovering new things. I recently got into sports, especially after my son started playing tennis. It's a great chance to spend time with him — bring a speaker to the court, blast some AC/DC or Blink-182, and introduce the kid to "proper" music (he's 8). In general, my family and I live a fairly low-key lifestyle — travel, walks, movie nights at home with popcorn, books. And of course video games. I'm genuinely amazed by the positive impact something like the PS has on a child's development. My son wanted to learn to read on his own, with zero pressure — and I remember how I was taught to read, how much I hated it until I finished university and discovered professional literature — all because at age 5 he was playing Spider-Man, and the missions often had hints and instructions in text only. Where else can you "create" a situation where you're explaining to a 5-year-old what a team is, what shared resources mean, and why sharing ammo is a critical survival condition for the whole squad (talking about Fortnite team matches) — or where you can organize daily live communication between two godfathers (one's 25, the other's 30, I'm 35, and the little one is 5) and still make it fun for everyone? I've come to understand the importance of spending time with my family and my son — not just understand it, but actually want it. My son challenges me constantly; at 8 years old he can basically pin his dad down with logical arguments and my own words — it's fascinating. It's fascinating to watch this "little guy" become his own person with his own opinions, to realize I have no idea who he'll become, to compare how I felt as a child fighting for my own independence from my mom — and now seeing it repeat itself, but from the other side.

That's a tough question — I don't have a defined strategy yet, I'm still figuring it out. The most consistent investment I make is in my own knowledge and in my family (the knowledge my son gains), because everything else is more of an experiment — exploration, analysis.

A team is trust and respect. A team is that part of you that you "come back to" — and together you make the impossible happen.