A Look Back at 2021 and Ahead to 2022

A Look Back at 2021 and Ahead to 2022 - by Jonathan Corona, COO

Happy New Year everyone; I hope you made it through the holiday season unscathed. You made it through another year, even if you need to be reminded that this is really the end of 2021. Where does the time go? This is the time of year that I typically look back at the prior year and what I hope for the next; this year I am sharing my thoughts with you.

Reflections on 2021

I must admit, one of the most difficult parts of writing this article is getting my years right; it is difficult to remember that this is actually 2021. One thing that cannot be denied is that 2021 was a historical year, global pandemic or not.

The year started off with the United States electing its first female vice-president, who a few months later got to be President for a couple hours while our sitting President underwent medical treatment.

In another historical move, after 20 years, the United States ended their occupation of Afghanistan.

As far as business was concerned, 2020 was tough enough with the pandemic causing lockdowns resulting in schools and many brick and mortar businesses being shut down for months. We thought 2021 would bring us some relief, but for many, 2021 only brought new confusion and mandates that made conducting business harder than ever. If there was ever a time to be an ecommerce merchant, or to at least establish an internet presence for your brick and mortar business, this was probably it.

There is no question that as far as ecommerce is concerned, 2020 was the beginning of a massive increase in sales over the Internet. People that may have never bought anything online before were pretty much forced to learn how to order their groceries online and figure out the deal with services such as Grubhub.

If you market online porn, gambling, or virtually anything, you saw increases in traffic and hopefully monetized said traffic. Of course, while you were doing your best to make a buck, there were plenty of cybercriminals out there trying to take it from you.

That is not to say that all your losses involved criminals or criminal actions; in fact, a good portion of any ecommerce expected loss is that done through chargebacks.

As it is our goal at MobiusPay to help you keep as much of your earned monies as possible, and chargebacks can cost one and a half times the amount being charged back with various fees, in 2021 we invested lot of time and money building our new platform that is directly integrated to Visa’s issuer platform - Order Insight, a platform that connects cardholders, merchants and issuers to resolve billing confusion and disputes in real-time, to the MobiusPay Dispute Resolution Service.

If anyone were to ask me what accomplishment I was most proud of this past year, there is no question our investment in the implementation of  Order Insight to our platform would top the list. Thanks to feedback from our merchants and the efforts of those behind the scenes, we spent the last year fine-tuning it to work seamlessly with VISA, helping you to minimize chargebacks.

Advantages to Order Insight include real-time data communication between card issuers and cardholders, the automatic shutdown of certain complaints before they become chargebacks, and instant fraud notification, thus keeping more of your hard-earned monies in your wallet.

As the MobiusPay client base grew in 2021, we also built our team to ensure prompt service to their needs and questions.

Sadly, 2021 ended on a sad note for many in the adult industry as we lost several pioneers in the last couple of months, beginning with event photographer Julius “JFK” Kedvessy at the end of September, followed too quickly with the passing of Beth “Persian Kitty” Mansfield, photographer Paul Markham, and most recently, Allan “Dating Gold” Henning. Our condolences go out to their friends and families.

Hopes for 2022

As we look forward to 2022, there are probably as many questions as answers out there, especially when it comes to surviving this global pandemic.

Luckily, for those of you with businesses that are solely Internet based, working from home was likely a selling point for you; it is almost like you have been training for a global lockdown your entire career.

Some of us involved in offering services to ecommerce merchants may still have an office to report to, which means interacting with others in a face-to-face environment. Now we have to consider vaccines, possible booster shots, wearing face masks, and maintaining your social distance from others. If you have family that lives with you, now you need to worry about what you bring home from work, or infections you may bring from home to work.

2022 is likely to require focus when it comes to striking a healthy work and home life balance. We have made it this far, and while no one is suggesting it has been easy, we can do it.

Nothing would make me happier that to board a jet plane and head off to a conference; believe it or not, I miss most of you. Speaking of which, if you are coming to Los Angeles for the XBIZ show, or to Las Vegas for Internext, please feel free to come up and say hello to any MobiusPay representative.

On a personal level, I look forward to being on two feet again.

In closing, I would like to again wish you and yours the best from all of us at MobiusPay. Stay healthy, enjoy life, and remember that MobiusPay is there to assist you in all your merchant processing needs.

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