Mobile payment outfit BilltoMobile is today launching its service globally, covering over 200 mobile carriers in more than 60 countries worldwide. The service allows customers to pay for online purchases using their mobile phones. Currently, the company has relationships with three of the top four U.S. carriers (Verizon, AT&T and Sprint) for its direct carrier billing service. It’s also popular in the Asian market, thanks to key investor Danal Co., Ltd. from Seoul, South Korea, a company with a long history in this market.
Through a newly announced partnership with Mobile First, the company will now reach billions more subscribers in the EU, Asia and South America, it says.
Carrier billing, for those unaware, is a term that refers to the ability to pay for purchases, like virtual goods in online games, for example, using a mobile phone. The purchase will show up on your monthly bill from your mobile carrier.
BilltoMobile works with merchants to provide them with this alternative payment option, and processes the transactions so the merchants themselves don’t have to work with all carriers around the world.
New Global Service Launches Next Month
The new global service will launch in May, BilltoMobile reports. In addition to Danal Co., Ltd. and U.S.-based Mobile First, BilltoMobile will also add one or two more partners that will allow it to expand to other parts of the world where it finds gaps in its current coverage.
But the company still has its work cut out for it. As Jim Greenwell, president and CEO of BilltoMobile notes, “the global payments market – and in particular the EU – is still very fragmented, and no one payment company has been able to establish the consistency and clear cut ‘best operations and rates’ globally that BilltoMobile has been able to attain with our Direct Carrier Billing service in the U.S.”
In Europe, there are over half a dozen leading mobile payment providers, depending on the country. To enter the market, BilltoMobile has chosen to partner with those providers that offer the most advanced technologies in their region, instead of positioning itself as a new payments company trying to gain traction.
BilltoMobile did something similar here in the U.S., partnering with leading mobile payment companies Zong and BOKU to expand the direct carrier billing options for Verizon Wireless customers, back in January.
The company says it will announce more live carriers and agreements with resellers, merchants and payment providers very soon.
