Michael Gabrielides
"Availability and performance must be very high. Since everything works smoothly, I'm completely satisfied with Host Europe."
Michael Gabrielides – AMALYZE AG
Michael Gabrielides has around twenty years’ experience in the online business. The co-founding of two payment processors that are still listed on the stock exchange today and the management of a television station on the subject of automobiles are just two of the things on his CV. Today, Gabrielides is chairman of the board and chief developer of AMALYZE AG, which he founded two and a half years ago near Munich. The company name is a combination of Amazon and Analysis and sums up the business’ purpose perfectly: AMALYZE is a tool for Amazon sellers, private label providers, FBA dealers (Fulfillment by Amazon) and sellers that’s designed to support them with Amazon SEO, product search, product research, product monitoring, ranking optimization and other requirements.Gabrielides is the master of gigantic amounts of data, which is collected and analyzed by the algorithm he writes and continuously adapts. In the launch phase, the tool had about half a million products on its screen, today it is well over 800 million. Behind the scenes of all his hard work, Host Europe has his back. We met up with him to talk about big data, computing power and going global.
AMALYZE stands for one of the largest databases for product and ranking information at Amazon. Before that you were managing director of a television production company. Two very different pairs of shoes. How does that work together?
At first glance, it really looks as if the two business areas are very far apart. In fact, this is not the case. At Motorvision we had, among other things, around 30,000 hours of moving images that had to be digitised and commercialised. We were already dealing with large data volumes.
You founded AMALYZE in mid-2016. How did this happen?
Actually, we were looking for a suitable tool to optimize our own products. When we didn't find what we were looking for, we asked ourselves why there was no such thing yet - either nobody needs it or nobody had the idea. We then decided to do it ourselves. Just do it and see what happens.
Obviously a right decision. Please describe in simple words what AMALYZE does concretely.
Put simply, we are dealing with the topic of data collection on Amazon. We collect tens of millions of data points, which we evaluate and process with our own software and make available to customers. With this tool, our customers have the opportunity to research new products and thus expand their portfolios, optimize existing products and revise their listings (i.e. what product information and keywords are transferred from the retailer to Amazon as platform operator) and research keywords in order to improve visibility on Amazon. The increased visibility in turn makes it possible to sell more and generate more revenue. The bottom line is a win-win-win situation for everyone involved - sellers, Amazon and us.
At first glance, it really looks as if the two business areas are very far apart. In fact, this is not the case. At Motorvision we had, among other things, around 30,000 hours of moving images that had to be digitised and commercialised. We were already dealing with large data volumes.
You founded AMALYZE in mid-2016. How did this happen?
Actually, we were looking for a suitable tool to optimize our own products. When we didn't find what we were looking for, we asked ourselves why there was no such thing yet - either nobody needs it or nobody had the idea. We then decided to do it ourselves. Just do it and see what happens.
Obviously a right decision. Please describe in simple words what AMALYZE does concretely.
Put simply, we are dealing with the topic of data collection on Amazon. We collect tens of millions of data points, which we evaluate and process with our own software and make available to customers. With this tool, our customers have the opportunity to research new products and thus expand their portfolios, optimize existing products and revise their listings (i.e. what product information and keywords are transferred from the retailer to Amazon as platform operator) and research keywords in order to improve visibility on Amazon. The increased visibility in turn makes it possible to sell more and generate more revenue. The bottom line is a win-win-win situation for everyone involved - sellers, Amazon and us.
"I expect my service provider to do his job. If he does, it's all right. And Host Europe does its job."
You are not only the CEO of AMALYZE, but also the chief developer of your research module of the same name. Are you a trained computer scientist?
I was lucky enough to grow up in a household that was open to technical developments. I also have a big brother, five years older, who had his own computer at an early age. I immediately found that part fascinating. I learned a lot by looking over his shoulder. When I was later allowed to put my hand to it myself, it was immediately clear to me: this is my thing!
After graduating from high school, I briefly got a taste of law and computer science - but more for fun to broaden my own perspective. In any case, I never seriously intended to finish it. The projects in which I was already involved at that time or which I helped to initiate were far too interesting for that.
The internet knows no borders, Amazon also does not know any borders. How does AMALYZE feel about internationalisation?
Of course, the topic of internationalisation is very important to us. We are already on our way in Europe. In recent months we have successively transferred a large number of ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers) from various European marketplaces into monitoring, including the UK, France, Italy and Spain. In addition, we are now starting to establish parallel structures in the USA.
That all sounds very personnel and resource-intensive. How big is your team?
We have nine employees at our Ismaning/Munich site. In addition, we are currently setting up a development center in the Ukraine in which three employees already work. We will also probably install our own team in the USA. The time difference, customer approach and much more make this necessary.
You work with Host Europe as your partner. How did the cooperation come about?
I didn't have to search long for a suitable service provider because I've known Host Europe for 15 years as a reliable partner. Throughout this period, I have always worked with Host Europe in one way or another. For us as AMALYZE, it's all about computing power and memory. Availability and performance must be very high. In addition, everything has to be stable. Since everything works smoothly, I am completely satisfied with our host. That's why we permanently rent new servers there. We can also handle our European activities well via the Host Europe computer centre. In the USA, on the other hand, the challenges are different. Here, the speed of data transmission across the Atlantic plays a decisive role. For this reason, we will probably have to resort to a data center on site, at least to a computer farm in the USA. What a lucky coincidence that the parent company of Host Europe is based in the USA.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a household that was open to technical developments. I also have a big brother, five years older, who had his own computer at an early age. I immediately found that part fascinating. I learned a lot by looking over his shoulder. When I was later allowed to put my hand to it myself, it was immediately clear to me: this is my thing!
After graduating from high school, I briefly got a taste of law and computer science - but more for fun to broaden my own perspective. In any case, I never seriously intended to finish it. The projects in which I was already involved at that time or which I helped to initiate were far too interesting for that.
The internet knows no borders, Amazon also does not know any borders. How does AMALYZE feel about internationalisation?
Of course, the topic of internationalisation is very important to us. We are already on our way in Europe. In recent months we have successively transferred a large number of ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers) from various European marketplaces into monitoring, including the UK, France, Italy and Spain. In addition, we are now starting to establish parallel structures in the USA.
That all sounds very personnel and resource-intensive. How big is your team?
We have nine employees at our Ismaning/Munich site. In addition, we are currently setting up a development center in the Ukraine in which three employees already work. We will also probably install our own team in the USA. The time difference, customer approach and much more make this necessary.
You work with Host Europe as your partner. How did the cooperation come about?
I didn't have to search long for a suitable service provider because I've known Host Europe for 15 years as a reliable partner. Throughout this period, I have always worked with Host Europe in one way or another. For us as AMALYZE, it's all about computing power and memory. Availability and performance must be very high. In addition, everything has to be stable. Since everything works smoothly, I am completely satisfied with our host. That's why we permanently rent new servers there. We can also handle our European activities well via the Host Europe computer centre. In the USA, on the other hand, the challenges are different. Here, the speed of data transmission across the Atlantic plays a decisive role. For this reason, we will probably have to resort to a data center on site, at least to a computer farm in the USA. What a lucky coincidence that the parent company of Host Europe is based in the USA.