Fortumo and the mobile operator group Orange have launched direct carrier billing in Egypt.
More than 30 million Orange subscribers in the country can now make payments on app stores, inside games and with digital merchants by charging purchases to their mobile phone bill.
Egypt is the second market where Orange and Fortumo have launched direct carrier billing for digital merchants; last year, Fortumo announced a partnership with the mobile operator group and expanded its payment services to Poland as the first Orange group market.
On this occasion Eng. Ashraf Halim, Deputy CEO, Orange Egypt said “Availing DCB to our subscribers’ base through Fortumo Technology opens the door for quick, convenient and secure online payments through Orange billing systems.”
“Egypt is one of the fastest growing smartphone countries with double-digit annual growth, making it an attractive market for digital merchants. At the same time, very few people own credit cards to pay for premium digital content - and that’s exactly where carrier billing comes in”, said Martin Koppel, CEO and co-founder of Fortumo.
In Egypt, most people are unable to make online purchases using traditional payment methods as less than 2% of people own a credit card. This makes it impossible for digital merchants to collect revenue from most of their users in the country. Direct carrier billing solves this problem by making online payments available to any phone owner: consumers can either deduct the payment from their prepaid SIM card or charge it to their monthly phone bill.
