Image credit: Source: Catena Media Q2 2026 interim report. Never imply stock depicts the actual event.
Catena Media's second-quarter revenue fell 1% to €9.5 million and adjusted EBITDA dropped 11% to €1.2 million, the affiliate group reported on August 11, a reversal from the double-digit growth it posted just one quarter earlier. EBITDA margin nearly halved, to 13% from 23% a year ago, as the organic-search traffic the business depends on kept losing ground.
North America still carried the business, at €9.2 million and 97% of group revenue, up 6% year on year, and new depositing customers rose 23% to 24,781. But chief executive Manuel Stan did not dress up the headline number: "Q2 results reflect industry-wide headwinds in organic search and mark a pause after several quarters of strong operating performance." He added that "traditional affiliation remains closely tied to the shifting dynamics of organic search," the same forces reshaping how Google's algorithm changes and AI Overviews are rewriting affiliate SEO across the sector.
The quarter's contrast with Q1 is stark. First-half revenue is still up 12% to €21.8 million and adjusted EBITDA up 70% to €3.9 million, entirely a function of a strong opening quarter that the second quarter did not repeat. Net income fell to €0.06 million from €0.49 million a year earlier.
Catena's answer is to lean further into MRKTPLAYS, its sub-affiliation marketplace platform, which the company said now contributes more than a third of group revenue. Management described it internally as building "a next-generation automated marketplace platform," a bet that a technology layer connecting smaller affiliates to operators can grow with less exposure to any single Google update than a portfolio of content sites can. According to intergameonline.com's report on the results, the board is "exploring how to reshape the business towards a model that reduces exposure to any single external factor."
That reshaping has already cost jobs. Catena cut five roles across technology, marketing and regional sites teams in early August, and personnel expenses fell a further 14% around the Q2 print, according to CasinoBeats, which quoted departing staff describing years of repeated restructuring. Former senior SEO content strategist Boriana Slabokova told the outlet: "The past 4 years at Catena were like being on a rollercoaster with broken brakes."
A platform bet only works if it outgrows what it's replacing
MRKTPLAYS crossing a third of revenue is a real result, not a talking point, but it also means two-thirds of Catena's business still rises and falls with the same organic-search exposure that just erased a quarter's worth of growth. The company isn't wrong that the marketplace model is less fragile. It hasn't yet grown fast enough to prove it's the fix rather than just the cushion.