mopay Enters Indian Carrier Billing Market with Next-Gen App Billing Solution

Details: James Barton; Category: Revenue & Billing; 27 May 2014; 4846 views

Online payment solutions provider mopay has entered the Indian market with an HTML5 in-app billing solution.

Massive growth rates in India indicate that the number of Internet-enabled mobile devices will have exceeded the US by the end of 2014. mopay is launching the HTML5-for-mobile version of direct carrier billing platform on all large Indian carriers to give its subscribers of mobile Internet devices the same frictionless payment experience as in Europe and the United States.

By mid-2014, 185 million users in India will have Internet-enabled devices, growing 20% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. While the penetration rate is increasing rapidly, the user experience with mobile transactions is still very traditional and relies on sending premium text messages to a short code within the messaging app.

mopay aims to improve this cumbersome payment process via an HTML5 browser interface, which is ideal for in-app payments. A direct billing interface that supports 75% of the Indian carrier landscape enables a frictionless mobile payment experience in line with standards in more developed markets. Even if the carrier network is unavailable, mopay’s solution still works if the device is connected to a WiFi network.

Indian carriers such as Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance have invested billions of dollars in upgrading their network infrastructure and allowing users in mainly urban areas to use mobile Internet services. Consequently smartphone sales have skyrocketed and triggered the demand for both free- and paid-content services, such as games, music, video, and community memberships. Direct carrier billing is the logical answer to the growing need for fast and easy payment.

Ingo Lippert, CEO of mopay, comments, "India's mobile phone market is the world's second-largest after China in numbers of customers. The demand for digital content is enormous, but only mopay’s latest generation of direct carrier billing will be able to unlock the full commercial potential. Our merchant base has always been eager to proactively enter the market.”