Mobile Payment Magazine

BilltoMobile Expands Verizon Carrier Billing Options to Include Boku

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BilltoMobile is expanding its direct carrier billing relationship with Verizon Wireless to process transactions from other payment platforms starting with mobile payment start-up Boku. The agreement allows Boku to tap into BilltoMobile’s direct billing gateway and will greatly expand the number of merchants and consumers who can use direct billing on Verizon. BilltoMobile’s deal with Boku is non-exclusive so BilltoMobile could also process transactions from Zong and other payments providers as well.

BilltoMobile last year secured the first U.S. carrier billing deal when it agreed with Verizon Wireless to process payments directly through the carrier’s billing system.

via GigaOm.

Mobile Payments Research Report 2011: Battle in a Fragmented Market

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Research and Markets  has announced the addition of the “Mobile Payments – A Battle of Giants in a Fragmented Market” report to their offering.

This study spotlights the mobile payment market, provides details about the related services and their technological aspects, analyses the usages and the industrial structure with a drawn of the value chain. The report makes an in-depth look in examining several business models – for NFC, SMS, Fixed/mobile wallet & App Stores – their impacts and upcoming opportunities.

Key Questions

  • What are the different mobile payment services and which technologies are being used?
  • Who is using M-payment and how do they use it?
  • How are this emerging market and its value chain structured?
  • What are the existing business models and who is the furthest along with their deployments?
  • What are the market’s key figures and what are the main forces driving development?
  • What does the competition landscape look like?
  • What sustainable opportunities are available to the different kind of players?

Key Topics Covered:

  • 1. Executive Summary
  • 2. Introduction
  • 3. Market structure and key factors
  • 4. Organisation & Industrial Strategy
  • 5. Strategic analysis
  • Tables
  • Figures

Companies Mentioned:

  • Amazon Mobile Payments
  • American Express
  • Apple
  • BarclayCard
  • Billing revolution
  • Boku
  • Carrefour
  • Deutsche Telekom
  • Facebook
  • Gemalto
  • Google
  • McDonald
  • MoBeePay
  • NFC
  • Nokia
  • NTT docomo
  • Obopay
  • Orange
  • PayPal
  • PTC
  • Sprint
  • Starbucks
  • Subway
  • Telecom Italia
  • Telefonica
  • Venmo
  • Verifone
  • Visa
  • Zong

More information: Research and Markets

Will Facebook Disrupt Mobile Payment Business?

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Facebook may be seeing positive cashflow and excellent rates of growth, but it’s also dismally unprofitable considering the size of its user base. That gives it the impetus for an all-out mobile payments push. It’s already primed for success: with about 100 million active users in the U.S., it already reaches about half the population between ages 15 and 64, and it already has those users accustomed to using their Facebook credentials all over the Web. Its Facebook Connect portable gateway technology has already been adopted by 80,000 websites, says Facebook, including giants like MySpace and YouTube.

But other players are trying to wrest the payments market from Facebook’s sleepy grasp. American Express just spent $300 million buying online payments startup Revolution Money Inc., a pet project of AOL founder Steve Case. Nokia spent $70 million on its Obopay stake, and venture-backed Boku acquired two smaller competitors this summer for an undisclosed sum.

via BNET.

BOKU Partners with UK’s Largest Online Classified Ads Company, Gumtree

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BOKU Inc, a global leader in mobile payments, today announced that a partnership with Gumtree.com, offering users a convenient way to pay for classifieds listings via their mobile phone number.

Gumtree users can now pay for listings and other features on the website by entering their mobile number and charging directly to their mobile phone bill. At checkout, Gumtree and other participating eBay Classifieds group properties display multiple payment options including credit cards and BOKU payments.

Users choosing to pay by mobile simply enter their mobile phone number to checkout. They receive a text to confirm the payment, and the charge appears on their mobile phone bill or is deducted from their pay-­‐as-­‐you-­‐go credit. An integrated payment connection between Gumtree and BOKU provides a value-­‐added service to the British online consumers and merchants, including a secure payment mechanism that is both convenient and easy to use. Gumtree originated in the UK, and now offers online classifieds postings for 60 different cities spread across 6 different countries: UK, Ireland, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Gumtree users in the UK alone post more than 250,000 new ads every week, and 2.3 million ads are live on the site at any given time.

Gumtree.com users spend an average of 72 minutes on the website each month.

“Gumtree is a leader in Europe’s online classifieds market, one of the largest in the world and part of the global eBay Classifieds Group,” said James Patmore, Managing Director, EMEA for BOKU. “This collaboration is an opportunity to connect with customers who prefer to pay with their mobile phone and is another significant step to BOKU opening up the European market. This collaboration will undoubtedly provide our new British customers with added value and options.” “BOKU mobile payments offer a simple and secure checkout option for Gumtree users,” said Patricia Bennett, head of product for Gumtree. “We’ve always focused on creating a great user experience, and the technology BOKU offers simplifies the payment process, adding value to the overall seller experience.”

BOKU markets their mobile payment service to online merchants and publishers on a global scale. The BOKU service enables merchants and publishers to drive incremental revenue by offering carrier billing as a payment option to their customers. BOKU is connected to over 220 mobile operators in more than 65 countries, and provides access to more than 2 billion potential customers who can pay by mobile. The process for making a payment is simple and convenient -­‐ users simply click Paymo by BOKU to purchase and then 1. Enter their mobile number, 2. Receive a text message to confirm, and 3. Reply with the letter “y.”

Boku Provides Mobile Payment Solutions in France and Korea

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Boku, a London-based mobile payments platform that allows customers to make payments via their mobile phones, has inked deals in France and Korea. The French deal will reach nearly all 55 million mobile customers in the country. According to mocoNews:

“In France, it’s inked a deal with the French Association of Mobile Multimedia (AFMM) and the three big French mobile operators that lead it, Bouygues Telecom, Orange France and SFR. The AFMM, founded in 2005, counts as members several smaller mobile operators in the country such as Auchan Telecom, Debitel, NRJ Mobile, Omer Telecom, as well as publishers and other service providers, so this agreement will essentially cover almost all of France’s 55 million mobile users. In Korea, Boku has signed a deal with Mobilians, which works with various content providers to enable mobile payments on their sites, to be enable a service for people to use their mobile telephone numbers to make the payments.”

via mocoNews.

U.S. Mobile Payment Market to Top $200 Billion by 2015, Says Research Report

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A recent report from Aite Group forecasts that U.S. mobile bill payments will reach more than $200  billion in 2015.

Aite Group interviewed more than 60 companies in the Fall of 2010 and produced a 65 page report that defines and segments the mobile payment industry, and includes an analysis of the competitive and market trends.

Each one of the multiple categories of mobile payments defined in the report will experience double-digit growth, with mobile payments accounting for  US$214 billion in gross dollar volume by 2015, up from US$16 billion in 2010–a 68% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2010 and 2015.

The report references the following companies: Allstate, Amazon, American Express, Apple, AT&T, Bango, Bank of America, Barclays, Bill2Mobile, BlackBerry, Bling Nation, BOKU, Brink’s, C-Sam, Cashedge, Cellfire, Chase, Chase Paymentech, Cimbal, ClairMail, coupons.com, Coupons Sherpa, Visa’s Cybersource, Device Fidelity, Diebold, Discover, Eagle Eye Solutions, eBay, Euronet, Facebook, First Data, FIS, Fiserv, Foursquare, Gemalto, Global Payments, Google, Gowalla, Green Dot, Groupon, Harland Financial Services, Heartland Payment Systems, Hipcricket, iLoop Mobile, Inside Contactless, Intuit, Jack Henry/iPay Technologies, Kubra, MasterCard, mFoundry, Mobile Coupons, Mocapay, MoneyGram, Monitise Group, mopay, MyWebGrocer, NCR, NetSpend, Nokia, Oberthur Technologies, Obopay, OfferIQ, Online Resources, PayPal, Plastyc, Pyxis Mobile, Research-in-Motion (RIM), Roam Data (Ingenico), Roamware, Rocketbuxx, SK C&C USA, Square, Starbucks, Sybase, T-Mobile, Tetherball, 3i Infotech, Tier Technologies, TransferTo, TSYS, Twitter, U.S. Bank, VeriFone, Verizon, Vesta, Visa, ViVOtech, Waspit, Way Systems, Western Union, Wincor Nixdorf, WirelessLoyalty, Xipwire, Yelp, and Zong.

More information: Aite Group Mobile Payment Report.

Source: Aite Group

BOKU

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BOKUBOKU allows consumers to make online payments using a mobile phone for payment of digital goods and social experiences across the web. With a focus on reliability and security, BOKU’s goal is to bring bank-grade payments technology and mobile users together on the web, creating a trusted, viable and accessible market for consumers, publishers and carriers alike.

Based in San Francisco with offices in Europe, Asia and Latin America, BOKU reaches over 1.8 billion consumers worldwide.
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