I think the 50,000 'clients' are simply people who take their no deposit £20 bonus and never return again.
Their revenue wouldn't grow if enough clients didn't become active clients and not only deposit their own funds but also lose that money trading.
Israeli firms have the affiliate side of this business nailed on. They have taken the tired model of acquiring clients one by one from small IB's and created sites where owners of any type of website can log on to the plus500 affiliate site (for example) and pull banners to their own websites and hey presto have become in an instant one of 50,000+ sites that promote plus500.
It's so simple.. its marketing on a mass scale like this industry hasn't seen before. If you want to have a visual of how big affiliate marketing has become then pop along to the London Affiliate Show and see how many massive gambling firms are present and the huge expense they have gone to to stand out.
Plus500 will pay affiliates up to $1,000 to bring them every client, when you compare this with someone like
IG who pay maybe 25% of the spread to their IB's and tie them up in knots with contracts and insist on the IB being regulated its no surprise that the way plus500 and other Israeli firms tempt introducers is beating the offers of the traditional spreadbet/cfd firms hands down...
the thing that confuses most people who are looking closely at plus500 (and lots are because we cant work out why clients would stay there once they see the trading conditions) is why their market cap is so high.. why do investors believe that this company is the real deal when most people think its a balloon that should have popped ages ago!!
it's got me stumped.. I half love it because its a great success story but the worrying half of me thinks its all going to end up pear shaped..