In a collaboration this week, Bango and Mobile Payments Today held a webinar on the opportunity present for MNOs(Mobile Network Operators) in the digital purchasing space. And it's rather large. According to research quoted by Mobile Payments Today: Digital content purchases are expected to reach $60 billion worldwide by the end of 2017. Whether that be an in app purchase, digital music, videos, games, or whatever digital content tickles your fancy. Crucially for MNOs, $13 billion of that amount is expected to be purchased through mobile phones using direct carrier billing. This could become an important revenue stream for operators as revenue from more traditional means such as voice and messaging services has dwindled in recent years.
Direct carrier billing is a payment method on phones that appeals to a lot of people, often because of its extreme ease of use on a mobile phone. Bango in the webinar reported they saw much higher conversion rates for first time buyers of digital content when customers opted to use carrier billing instead of credit cards. The webinar suggested there is only a conversion of 10-12 per cent for first time digital content buyers using credit cards, but when the option of direct carrier billing is offered, conversion rates jump to 70 per cent.
There is certainly room in the market for MNOs to start increasing revenue from Digital purchases, but they need to move fast to support regions and markets. Carrier billing is an extremely interesting method of payment for users of mobile phones, and that's why we support it on our Ensygnia Platform. It's all about giving the consumer freedom and choice to pay how they want at ease and speed, but also on a secure and safe platform too. Find out more about the payment opportunities we facilitate and offer at Ensygnia by clicking here.
By Matthew Taylor 28th October 2014
Related stories around the web
Direct carrier billing for app stores represents opportunity for MNO's - Mobile Payments Today
Webinar: How operators can seize the carrier billing opportunity - Mobile Payments Today
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