Brussels, 14th May 2019. As of today, Mopets.com (for MOther of PETS) is online. This start-up, launched by a Belgian entrepreneur, aims to bring together the many friends and owners of pets as well as professionals in the animal sector within a collaborative platform that aims to lead in this market.

This is a start-up that was not born in a garage for a change, but... in a dog basket. Mopets is above all the story of Nancy, her husband Peter and Gus, their hunting dog, a Munsterländer adopted from a shelter at the age of eleven months. Due to professional circumstances, the family was forced to leave their rural home and had to move to a city apartment, but the owners could not imagine sending Gus back to the shelter. They had no idea how to deal with the problem, so they tried to meet other owners of Munsterländer who had had a similar experience. Having spent most of her career in communication and marketing, Nancy Delhalle could not miss this ideal solution to bring testimonies together: a community on the Net! The foundations of Mopets had been laid, and now they only needed to develop a profitable business model.

Becoming the "reference" in the pet market

Mopets.com is a social network with classified ads, a collaborative platform of services for pets and a directory of professionals in the sector. A unique combination where everyone benefits:

·       pet owners who wish to publicly share their love for their faithful companion(s) by posting status updates, photos and videos, but also reports of lost or found pets, or animals that are up for adoption;

·       professionals in the animal sector (breeders, veterinarians, groomers, educators, pension and shelter managers, etc.) who wish to make themselves known to (future) pet owners;

·       individuals who provide services to pet owners (dog and cat keepers, dog walkers, …);

·       advertisers who seek to contact pet owners to offer them products, services and commercial offers in a targeted manner. 

There was a need for an easily accessible meeting space where pet owners could talk and find, in the blink of an eye, all the answers to their questions. It is to this need that Mopets remedies, with contributions from both individuals and professionals (breeders, veterinarians, educators...). It aims to become the "reference" for all questions/needs related to pets: the improved Facebook of pets, in a way.

"There are already a number of platforms dedicated to pets and their owners, but none that combines the strength of a social network, an omnichannel digital marketing strategy that generates high traffic and, in turn, immediate revenue, as well as a complete range of services related to the life of the animal," says Nancy Delhalle (47), co-founder of Serviceplan Group Benelux. "Our business model is based on the marketing of activities carried out by pet owners on the collaborative platform (classified ads, transactions) and professionals in the sector (premium spaces offering more features accessible via a subscription system), but also on revenues from targeted and native advertising."

In the medium term, the founder of Mopets also plans to offer pet owners annual packages (including, for example, insurance, veterinary consultations and quality food at a favourable price). It has also received support from private investors to create the Mopets brand, which will offer new products and services to make life easier for pet owners.

An extremely promising market

According to a study by the FPS Economy, Belgians owned 1.5 million dogs and 2.2 million cats in 2014 (latest official data available). Expenditure on pets for the same year amounted to €1.3 billion: a budget of which the main items are food (55.9%), veterinary fees (23.2%), the purchase of miscellaneous products (10.5%), accommodation costs and animal welfare (6.3%). And the counters skyrocket as soon as you look at the European market, with, for example, 12.2 million pets in the Netherlands, 15.9 million in Spain, 27.3 million in France, 30 million in Germany…

Launched jointly in Belgium and Luxembourg, Mopets will enter these four very promising markets in the coming months. Other countries will follow after one year of activities. In Belgium, Nancy Delhalle aims to achieve financial equilibrium from the first year and reach a turnover of 3 million euros within three years in Western Europe.