GIFTIFY, INC. 10-K

ITEM 1. BUSINESS As used in this Annual Report, the terms “we,” “us,” “our,” and the “Company” refer to RDE, Inc., a Delaware corporation. RDE, Inc. owns and operates Restaurant.com. Restaurant.com is a pioneer in the restaurant deal space and the nation’s largest restaurant-focused digital deals brand. Founded in 1999, we connect digital consumers, businesses, and communities offering over 200,000 dining and merchant deal options nationwide at over 182,500 restaurants and retailers to over 7.8 million customers. Our 12,500 core restaurants and 170,000 Dining Discount Pass restaurants and retailers extend nationwide. Our top three B2C markets are New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. We earn revenue from transactions in which we sell discount certificates for restaurants and complementary entertainment and travel offerings and consumer products on behalf of third-party merchants. Those complementary offerings and products transactions generally involve a customer’s purchase of a voucher through one of our websites that can be redeemed with a third-party merchant for services or goods (or for discounts on services and goods). Revenue from those transactions is reported on a net basis and equals the purchase price received from the customer for the voucher less an agreed upon portion of the purchase price paid to the merchant. Revenue also includes direct sales of our restaurant discount certificates on our website and is the purchase price received from the customer. We also earn revenue when online partners drive customers to our websites to purchase our discount certificates and complementary offerings and products, where the revenue equals the purchase price less an agreed upon portion paid to the partners. Approximately 9-13 days each month we email our customers offers for restaurant discounts experiences and products based on location and personal preferences. Consumers also access our deals directly through our websites and mobile applications. A typical restaurant discount deal might offer a $25 discount that can be used toward a $50 purchase at a participating restaurant. Additional deals include discounted pricing at theatres, movies or other merchants. Customers purchase deals from us and redeem them with our merchant partners. Through our websites, www.restaurant.com, www.specials.restaurant.com, and mobile iOS and Android apps, we provide an affordable dining and entertainment experiences. In addition to purchasing restaurant and discount certificates, entertainment and travel deals and consumer products as well as company gift card redemption, our website and mobile platform provide additional information to assist the customer and encourage return visits to our websites, including restaurant menus, entree pricing, mapping and directions, and extensive filtering options, including most popular cuisine type and “Deals Near Me” for nearby restaurants. Paperless restaurant certificate redemption and validation can also occur on our mobile platforms. In the past year, there were an average of 1.3 million unique visitors per month to our digital platforms including our mobile and Specials offerings. Since the launch of our mobile apps in 2012, mobile has grown from zero to 49% of our B2C revenue and over 60% of the B2C orders with over 6.0 million downloads of our apps for the year months ending December 31, 2022. Restaurant.com’s B2B sales program has grown significantly since its introduction in 2004 and now comprises 40% of our revenue. Our high-value, low-cost features enable businesses to use Restaurant.com certificates to entice new and existing customers to increase sales, promote customer satisfaction and incent desired behavior. The availability of use in every market, features like “never expire” and online exchange, and use by every customer demographic to fit every business’s customer base are features which we believe provide almost unlimited market potential for Restaurant.com’s B2B division. Recent Mergers and Acquisitions Effective February 28, 2022, we closed the acquisition of GameIQ, Inc., a developer of consumer gamification technologies for retail businesses. Under the terms of the Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”), we agreed to issue 600,000 restricted shares of our common stock and issued promissory notes to Balazs Wellisch, President and co-founder, and Quentin Blackford, Director, of GameIQ, in the principal amounts of $78,813 and $62,101, respectively, bearing interest at 1% per annum, to repay loans by Mr. Wellisch and Mr. Blackford to GameIQ. Each note requires repayment in six equal biannual instalments, with the first instalment due on the six-month anniversary of the Closing Date as that term is defined in the Acquisition Agreement. Following the merger, Balazs Wellisch became the Chief Technology Officer of Restaurant.com, a subsidiary of ours. 1 Our Business We have three principal divisions, the B2C, the B2B and all other services and products division. Business to Customer Division Our B2C division accounted for 45% of gross revenue in our fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. To our database of 7.8 million customers, we sell: ● Discounted certificates for 12,500 restaurants. The certificates range from $5 to $100 and never expire. ● Discount Dining Passes, which provide discounts at 170,000 restaurants and other retailers. These passes provide multiple uses for six months. ● “Specials by Restaurant.com” which bundle Restaurant.com certificates with a variety of other entertainment options, including theatre, movies, wine and travel. Customers have favored these bundled offering (“Specials”), generating significantly greater revenue per customer when compared to purchasing our other products. The average order value for these Specials sales is nearly five times a certificate purchase. Specials generated over 5% of our past year’s B2C revenue from 60% of the B2C orders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. We believe that our relationships with small businesses presents a significant revenue opportunity through such cross-promotions. Business to Business Division Our B2B division accounted for 55% of our gross revenue in our fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. We sell certificates and Discount Dining Passes to corporations and marketers, which use them to: ● generate new customers; ● increase sales at the point of sale; ● reward points/customer loyalty; ● convert to paperless billing and auto-bill payment. ● motivate specific customer behavior such as free home repair estimates and test drives for auto dealers; ● renew subscriptions and memberships; and ● address customer service issues. Other Business We also generate revenue through third-party offers and display ad revenue. This comprises a de minimis portion of our gross revenue. Attractive Customer Demographics We intend to grow and leverage our customer database of 7.8 million which we believe is of value to merchants for a variety of services and products. 2 Marketing We primarily use marketing to acquire and retain high-quality merchants and customers and promote awareness of our marketplaces. In 2022, we spent approximately $486,000 on advertising and marketing efforts to increase our visibility and establish stronger relationships with our customers, merchants and partners. We use a variety of marketing channels to make customers aware of the offerings, including search engines, email and affiliate partnerships and social media. Search engines. Customers can access our offerings indirectly through third-party search engines. We use search engine optimization and search engine marketing to increase the visibility of our offerings in web search results. Email. We communicate offerings through email to our customers based on their locations and personal preferences. A customer who interacts with an email is directed to our website and mobile applications to learn more about the deal and to make a purchase. Social. We publish offerings through various social networks and adapt our marketing to the particular format of each of these social networking platforms. Our website and mobile applications enable consumers to share our offerings with their personal social networks. We also promote our offerings using display advertising on websites. Offline. We use offline marketing such as print to help build awareness of brand. Distribution We distribute our deals directly through several platforms: email, our websites, our mobile applications and social networks. We also utilize various affiliate partnerships to display and promote our deals on their websites, such as with AMAC, Groupon, MemberHub and others. We also use various customer loyalty and reward programs to build brand loyalty, generate traffic to the website and provide business clients with the opportunity to offer incentives to their customers to receive discounts and Discount Dining Passes. When customers perform qualifying acts, such as providing a referral to a new subscriber or participating in promotional offers, we grant the customer credits that can be redeemed for awards such as free or discounted services or goods in the future. Email. The emails for discount certificates for restaurant contain one headline deal with a full description of the deal and a sampling of dining deals which are available within a customer’s market. The emails for Specials by Restaurant.com include featured travel, entertainment and wine deals in addition to various other product deals. Websites. Visitors are prompted to register as a customer when they first purchase on our websites and thereafter use the website as a portal for discount certificates for restaurants, complementary entertainment and travel offerings and consumer products. Mobile Applications. Consumers also access our deals through our mobile applications, which are available at no additional cost on the iPhone and Android, mobile operating systems. We launched our first mobile application in 2012 and our applications have been downloaded over 6.0 million times since then. These applications enable consumers to browse, purchase, manage and redeem deals on their mobile devices. Social Networks. We publish our daily deals through various social networks adapt and our marketing to the particular format of each of these social networking platforms. Our website and mobile application interfaces enable our consumers to share our offerings to their personal social networks. Operations Our business operations are divided into the following core functions to address the needs of our merchants and customers. 3 Marketing. Our marketing department is responsible for managing the Restaurant.com brand, the B2C discount certificate and Specials offerings, creating the promotional calendar, all creative assets used in our marketing channels such as the website, email and affiliate partnerships, including imagery and editorial content, negotiation with affiliate and merchant partners, revenue management, company analytics and B2B marketing and brand assets. As of December 31, 2022, our Marketing team consisted of three employees. We have an agreement with Commission Junction for a monthly payment of $1,500 to $3,500 that generates potential leads with companies that earn a commission by promoting our discount deals on their websites for which they receive between 3% to 15% of the revenue we receive from a customer’s purchase of a discount certificate. Customer Service Representatives. Our customer service representatives can be reached via email 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The customer service team also works with our information technology team to improve the customer experience on the website and mobile applications based on customer feedback. As of December 31, 2022, we employed four customer representatives. Technology. We employ technology to improve the experience we offer to customers and merchants, increase the rate at which our customers purchase and enhance the efficiency of our business operations. A component of our strategy is to continue developing and refining our technology. We devote a substantial portion of our resources to developing new technologies and features and improving our core technologies. Our information technology team is focused on the design and development of new features and products, maintenance of our websites and development and maintenance of our internal operations systems. As of December 31, 2022 our information technology team consisted of five employees. Competition We have a substantial number of competing groups buying sites. These competitors offer substantially the same or similar product offerings as us. Among the companies that focus on the dining and savings category and certain of the subcategories in which we participate are the following: ● discount (e.g., Groupon.com, Entertainment.com); ● ratings and reviews communities (Zagat.com, TripAdvisor); ● restaurant listings (Yelp, Zomato and OpenTable); ● food content (Food Network, Food.com and Epicurious); ● eCommerce (Groupon, TravelZoo and Woot); and ● takeout and delivery (DoorDash.com, GrubHub.com UberEats.com and Delivery.com). We believe the principal competitive factors in our market include the following: ● breadth of customer base and number of restaurants featured; ● ability to deliver a high volume of relevant deals to consumers; ● ability to produce high purchase rates for deals among customers; ● ability to generate positive return on investment for merchants; and ● strength and recognition of our brand. We believe we compete favorably on several of the factors described above and plan to increase our standing in each of these categories. As of December 31, 2022, our customer base was 7.8 million and during 2022 we featured deals at over 184,000 restaurants and merchants. 4 Although we believe we compete favorably on the factors described above, we anticipate that larger, more established companies may directly compete with us as we continue to demonstrate the viability of a local e-commerce business model. Many of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources and larger customer bases than we do. These factors may allow our competitors to benefit from their existing customer or subscriber base with lower acquisition costs or to respond more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements. These competitors may engage in more extensive research and development efforts, undertake more far-reaching marketing campaigns and adopt more aggressive pricing policies, which may allow them to build a larger subscriber base or to monetize that subscriber base more effectively than us. Our competitors may develop products or services that are similar to our products and services or that achieve greater market acceptance than our products and services. In addition, although we do not believe that merchant payment terms are a principal competitive factor in our market, they may become such a factor and we may be unable to compete fairly on such terms. Regulation We are subject to a number of foreign and domestic laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business on the internet, many of which are still evolving and could be interpreted in ways that could harm our business. In the United States and abroad, laws relating to the liability of providers of online services for activities of their users and other third parties are currently being tested by a number of claims. These regulations and laws may involve taxation, tariffs, subscriber privacy, data protection, content, copyrights, distribution, electronic contracts and other communications, consumer protection, the provision of online payment services and the characteristics and quality of services. It is not clear how existing laws governing issues such as property ownership, sales and other taxes, libel and personal privacy apply to the internet as the vast majority of these laws were adopted prior to the advent of the internet and do not contemplate or address the unique issues raised by the internet or e-commerce. In addition, it is possible that governments of one or more countries may seek to censor content available on our websites or may even attempt to completely block access to our websites. Accordingly, adverse legal or regulatory developments could substantially harm our business. The CARD Act, as well as the laws of most states, contain provisions governing product terms and conditions of gift cards, gift certificates, stored value or pre-paid cards or coupons (“gift cards”), such as provisions prohibiting or limiting the use of expiration dates on gift cards or the amount of fees charged in connection with gift cards or requiring specific disclosures on or in connection with gift cards. Discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes generally are included within the definition of “gift cards” in many of these laws. In addition, certain foreign jurisdictions have laws that govern disclosure and certain product terms and conditions, including restrictions on expiration dates and fees that may apply to discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes. However, the CARD Act as well as a number of states and certain foreign jurisdictions also have exemptions from the operation of these provisions or otherwise modify the application part of a promotion or promotional program. If discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes are subject to the CARD Act, and are not included in the exemption for promotional programs, it is possible that the purchase value, which is the amount equal to the price paid for the discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes, or the promotional value, which is the add-on value of the discount certificate and Discount Pass in excess of the price paid, or both, may not expire before the later of (i) five years after the date on which the discount certificate or Discount Pass was issued; (ii) their stated expiration date (if any), unless discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes come within an exemption in the CARD Act for promotional programs; or (iii) a later date provided by applicable state law. In addition, regardless of whether an exemption for discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes applies under the CARD Act, in those states that prohibit or otherwise restrict expiration dates on gift cards that are defined to include discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes and that do not have exemptions that apply to the purchase value or the promotional value, or both, of discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes, the discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes may be required to be honored for the full offer value (the total of purchase value and promotional value) until redeemed. Our terms of use and agreements with our merchants require merchants to continue to honor unredeemed discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes that are past the stated expiration date of the promotional value of the discount Certificate and Discount Pass to the extent required under the applicable law. While we are attempting to comply with exemptions for promotional programs available under these laws so that our discount certificates’ and Discount Dining Passes’ promotional value can expire on the date stated on the certificate and Discount Pass, we continue to require that merchants with whom we partner honor discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes under the provisions of all laws applicable to discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes, including laws that prohibit expiration. 5 In addition, some states also include gift cards under their unclaimed and abandoned property laws which require companies to remit to the government the value of the unredeemed balance on the gift cards after a specified period of time (generally between one and five years) and impose certain reporting and recordkeeping obligations. We do not remit any amounts relating to unredeemed discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes based upon our assessment of applicable laws. The analysis of the potential application of the unclaimed and abandoned property laws to discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes is complex, involving an analysis of constitutional and statutory provisions and factual issues, including our relationship with customers and merchants and our role as it relates to the issuance and delivery of our discount certificates and Discount Pass. Many states have passed laws requiring notification to customers when there is a security breach of personal data. There are also a number of legislative proposals pending before the U.S. Congress, various state legislative bodies and foreign governments concerning data protection. In addition, data protection laws in Europe and other jurisdictions outside the United States may be more restrictive, and the interpretation and application of these laws are still uncertain and in flux. It is possible that these laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our data practices. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, this could result in an order requiring that we change our data practices, which could have an adverse effect on our business. Furthermore, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has provisions that limit, but do not necessarily eliminate, our liability for linking to third-party websites that include materials that infringe copyrights or other rights, so long as we comply with the statutory requirements of this act. Complying with these various laws could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business. Various federal laws, such as the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act, impose certain anti-money laundering requirements on companies that are financial institutions or that provide financial products and services. For these purposes, financial institutions are broadly defined to include money services businesses such as money transmitters, check cashers and sellers or issuers of stored value. Examples of anti-money laundering requirements imposed on financial institutions include customer identification and verification programs, record retention policies and procedures and transaction reporting. We do not believe that we are a financial institution subject to these laws and regulations based, in part, on the characteristics of the discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes and our role with respect to the distribution of the discount certificates and Discount Dining Passes to customers. However, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department tasked with implementing the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act, recently proposed amendments to the scope and requirements for parties involved in stored value or prepaid access, including a proposed expansion of the definition of financial institution to include sellers or issuers of prepaid access. In the event that this proposal is adopted as proposed, it is possible that a discount certificate and Discount Pass could be considered a financial product and that we could be a financial institution. Although we do not believe we are a financial institution or otherwise subject to these laws and regulations, it is possible that the Company could be considered a financial institution or provider of financial products. Intellectual Property We protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights, as well as contractual restrictions. We control access to our proprietary technology by entering into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and confidentiality agreements with third parties. In addition to these contractual arrangements, we also rely on a combination of trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade dress, domain names and patents to protect our intellectual property. We pursue the registration of our copyrights, trademarks, service marks and domain names in the United States and in certain locations outside the United States. Our registration efforts have focused on gaining protection of the following trademarks (among others): The Company owns the registered marks “RESTAURANT.COM,” “DINING DOUGH,” and has submitted applications for several others. These marks are material to our business as they enable others to easily identify us as the source of the services offered under these marks and are essential to our brand identity. Circumstances outside our control could pose a threat to our intellectual property rights. For example, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in the United States. Also, the efforts we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may not be sufficient or effective. Any significant impairment of our intellectual property rights could harm our business or our ability to compete. Also, protecting our intellectual property rights is costly and time-consuming. Any unauthorized disclosure or use of our intellectual property could make it more expensive to do business and harm our operating results. 6 Companies on the internet, social media technology and other industries may own large numbers of patents, copyrights and trademarks and may frequently request license agreements, threaten litigation or file suit against us based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. We are currently subject to, and expect to face in the future, allegations that we have infringed the trademarks, copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties, including our competitors and non-practicing entities. As we face increasing competition and as our business grows, we will likely face more claims of infringement. Customer Service and Support Our ability to establish and maintain long term relationships with our customers and encourage repeat visits and purchases is dependent, in part, on the strength of our customer support and service operations. We have established multiple channels for communicating with our customers before and after the sale, including phone, e-mail and online support. We currently employ a staff of in-house customer support personnel responsible for handling customer inquiries, tracking shipments, investigating and resolving problems with merchandise and travel. Customer care representatives are available for support from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Central Time, Monday through Friday. In addition, our customer service representatives are trained to cross-sell complementary and ancillary products and services. Employees As of December 31, 2022, we had 27 full time employees. None of our employees or personnel is represented by a labor union, and we consider our employee/personnel relations to be good. Competition for qualified personnel in our industry is intense, particularly for software development and other technical staff. We believe that our future success will depend in part on our ability to attract, hire and retain qualified personnel. Emerging Growth Company We are and we will remain an “emerging growth company” as defined under The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the “JOBS Act”), until the earliest to occur of (i) the last day of the fiscal year during which our total annual revenues equal or exceed $1 billion (subject to adjustment for inflation), (ii) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of our initial public offering, (iii) the date on which we have, during the previous three-year period, issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt securities, or (iv) the date on which we are deemed a “large accelerated filer” (with at least $700 million in public float) under the Exchange Act. As an “emerging growth company”, we may take advantage of specified reduced disclosure and other requirements that are otherwise applicable generally to public companies. These provisions include: ● only two years of audited financial statements in addition to any required unaudited interim financial statements with correspondingly reduced “Management’s Discussion and Analysis” disclosure; ● reduced disclosure about our executive compensation arrangements; ● no requirement that we hold non-binding advisory votes on executive compensation or golden parachute arrangements; and ● exemption from the auditor attestation requirement in the assessment of our internal control over financial reporting. We have taken advantage of some of these reduced burdens, and thus the information we provide stockholders may be different from what you might receive from other public companies in which you hold shares. 7 In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an emerging growth company can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that our decision to opt out of the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards is irrevocable. We are choosing to take advantage of such extended transition period, and as a result, we will not comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging growth companies. = Notwithstanding the above, we are also currently a “smaller reporting company”, meaning that we are not an investment company, an asset-backed issuer, or a majority-owned subsidiary of a parent company that is not a smaller reporting company and have a public float of less than $75 million and annual revenues of less than $50 million during the most recently completed fiscal year. In the event that we are still considered a “smaller reporting company”, at such time as we cease being an “emerging growth company”, the disclosure we will be required to provide in our SEC filings will increase but will still be less than it would be if we were not considered either an “emerging growth company” or a “smaller reporting company”. Specifically, similar to “emerging growth companies”, “smaller reporting companies” are able to provide simplified executive compensation disclosures in their filings; are exempt from the provisions of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“SOX”) requiring that independent registered public accounting firms provide an attestation report on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting; and have certain other decreased disclosure obligations in their SEC filings, including, among other things, only being required to provide two years of audited financial statements in annual reports.