GoSpoken

Goals

  • Sell eBooks and audio books via the GoSpoken mobile digital book shop to users worldwide
  • Provide users with a quick and easy way to purchase eBooks by paying on their phone bill
  • Deliver an optimized payment experience to their smartphone customers
  • Offer a fast and secure payment experience for customers that yield high conversion rates, across multiple platforms, territories and networks, including Wi-Fi

Mobcast was founded in 2007 (as Spoken Entertainment) by CEO Tony Lynch and bestselling author Andy McNab. Having spotted the potential offered by the increasing numbers and capabilities of mobile phones, their strategy was to develop GoSpoken.com, an online retail platform for digital books for these devices, gaining access to large customer bases and billing infrastructures through partnerships with mobile network operators, equipment manufacturers and content retailers.

An early mover, Mobcast developed its own software platform to import digital book data and deliver it in the correct format to paying customers around the world via internet and mobile networks. The company also acted swiftly to establish content agreements, securing the entire eBook catalogues of all the major publishers, and many independents.

Mobcast’s notable achievements include powering cloud-based digital book platforms with retail capabilities and content for mobile network operators Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile whose collective customer base extends to around 70% of the UK population, and leading retailer WHSmith. In addition mobile phone manufacturers BlackBerry and Nokia have enabled access to Mobcast’s branded digital books by pre-installing apps and content on new devices.

The solution

With over 70,000 bestsellers titles available on the digital book shop, Mobcast wanted to find a mobile billing solution that allowed them to sell their growing catalogue of eBooks and audio books to users from their consumer brand – GoSpoken.com, directly on their devices.

Mobcast launched their new site in 2011 using the Bango payment platform to sell and charge customers worldwide for digital books. GoSpoken customers are able to purchase eBooks and audio books from the extensive catalogue and download them across their phone, PC, tablet or eReader. Bango enables customers to pay on their phone bill presenting a consistent operator billing experience on all networks and connections including Wi-Fi.

When users click to purchase a digital book from the GoSpoken mobile site, Bango dynamically delivers a payment page in the local language and currency. Customers have the option to pay by single-click operator billing. In addition Bango automatically complies with local tax and regulations.

Bango also provides Mobcast with detailed payment reports where they can track their revenues and see conversion rates for all purchases. In addition, Bango delivers insightful information about their customers, including country, network, device type and status of billing transactions, enabling Mobcast to provide an optimized service to their customers.

Having anticipated the market for digital books to mobile devices years ago, Mobcast is now a successful platform for digital books on both sides of the Atlantic. Following the successful launch of the service with multiple operators across Europe, it continues to grow through product innovation. In addition to securing licensing and distribution agreements with major international publishers it has also achieved agreements with major organizations including BlackBerry, Nokia, Apple, WHSmith, Everything Everywhere (who own two of the UK's biggest brands Orange and T-Mobile and together have a combined customer base of 30 million),Verizon in the US, with more partnerships expected to be announced in 2011. Bango continues to support Mobcast through this growing phase by providing its leading billing solution across these territories.

gospoken logo

goSpoken books

With Bango, GoSpoken have seen a marked increase in sales through operator billing transactions.

How Bango helps

  • Provides a payments platform that enables Mobcast’s customers to pay on their phone bill
  • Enables Mobcast to develop a new revenue stream by allowing them to sell digital books to users on all devices, including smartphones
  • Provides real-time information about the status of billing transactions to deliver an optimized mobile experience that yields high conversion rates
  • Consistent operator billing experience to phone users on all networks and internet connections, including Wi-Fi

By using Bango to deliver a consistent operator payment experience to all our customers we have seen a marked increase in sales. Conversion rates using operator billing are much higher than using other methods, and easier for our consumers.

Over 50% of our customers have an Android phone and an increasing number are using Wi-Fi for the faster connection speeds on offer – they can now buy the same way as everyone else. No other billing solution lets our smartphone customers simply click to pay.

Stephen Crawford, COO, Mobcast