Boku Inc. (LON:BOKU), a leading global mobile payment and mobile identity company, has announced that its recently acquired subsidiary, Fortumo, has launched a direct carrier billing partnership with Myanmar mobile operator Mytel. Mytel subscribers can now pay for games, in-app content and digital services by charging purchases to their postpaid phone bill or prepaid SIM card.
Fortumo’s Hosted DCB and Web SDK solutions make it easy for digital service providers to launch direct carrier billing in a scalable manner. Fortumo manages the checkout flow and localisation on behalf of its merchants, accelerating the time-to-market and reducing the amount of development work needed to launch the payment method. The same integration can be used to collect payments from Mytel and more than 280 other mobile operators across the world connected to Fortumo’s platform.
In Myanmar, less than 1% of people have a credit card, while over 80% of people own a smartphone. This creates a problem for digital merchants: while most people can access online content, the vast majority are unable to pay for premium services. Carrier billing solves this for digital merchants by allowing any user to charge online payments to their phone bill. Carrier billing does not require users to create any account and no personal data is collected during the checkout process: payments are instead completed through a simple 2-step verification process.
Boku state that in Asia, Fortumo recently announced launching direct carrier billing on Google Play for Tune Talk in Malaysia and Ufone in Pakistan.
Dr. Nilar Aye, Chief External Relations Officer at Mytel, commented: “Given Fortumo’s partnership with strong merchants, and premium services, we are pleased to cooperate. Fortumo’s technical prowess made the integration process smooth, and further enhanced our trust in them. We are excited to bring another top-tier access to premium services to our customers.”
Taavi Krusell, VP of Telco Partnerships at Fortumo, commented: “Myanmar’s rapid growth in smartphone ownership has created strong interest from digital content merchants in expanding into the country. We are excited to be working with Mytel and giving their subscribers a way to access high-quality digital content, as well as pay for premium services through their phone bill.”
