The following was released by Orange France in Paris on November 16th. The original French language release can be found here (PDF download).
Orange is the first operator in France to launch Facebook mobile payment via its mobile phone bills
Since 31 October 2012, Orange customers have been able to buy online services in Facebook’s HTML5 universe, directly on their smartphone, using the internet+ solution.
Mobile payments in 2 clicks to simplify purchases
Payment in the Facebook HTML5 universe allows subscribers to use online services such as account topups or the purchasing of accessories in games. With internet+, users no longer need to enter personal details (phone numbers, bank details, login details, etc.) and the purchase requires just two clicks: one to choose the purchase and the other to confirm. This simple and secure system allows the automatic identification of an Orange subscriber. Customers need only to approve the purchase, which will be included in their next mobile bill. A few minutes later, users will receive a text message from Orange to notify them of their Facebook purchase.
This simplification of purchases for Facebook members will also be popular with developers who have committed to HTML5 and want to be accessible on all mobile handsets. Thanks to HTML5, the monetisation of mobile sites is now open to payment on the operator’s bill, for all smartphones running iOS, Android, Windows Phone or Samsung’s Bada.
A project involving three partners
This project has brought together three partners: the Facebook social network, its service provider, Bango, which has been responsible for technological integration and Orange, with its internet+ solution. Orange and Facebook launched this partnership initially in the UK, and then in France. Orange and Facebook are currently working on rolling out this new development to the rest of Europe.
“I am proud of this partnership with Facebook, which once again demonstrates the attractiveness of operator billing solutions. It is a great success for Orange which is dedicated to providing users with the best online purchasing experience, irrespective of the handset used,” commented Hélène ViotPoirier, Head of Portals at Orange.
About Orange digital
In France Orange has more than 2.6 million fans across its Facebook pages, with the Orange France, Orange Fan and Orange Musique pages proving particularly popular with 590,000, 510,000 and 73,000 fans respectively. The company has nearly 150,000
followers on Twitter and more than 34 million views on its YouTube and Dailymotion channels. Orange France is also on Pinterest (OrangeFrance), Instagram (OrangeFrance) and Foursquare (OrangeFrance). Sosh, Orange’s 100%-connected mobile brand, has more than 435,000 fans on Facebook and more than 27,000 followers on Twitter. Sosh is also on Pinterest (soshfr) and Instagram (Sosh_fr).
