First Google Play Direct Carrier Billing in South America
Millions of Entel subscribers in Chile are now able to pay using their phone bill for the massive array of content and services sold in Google Play, including Minecraft, Tinder and Google Play Music. Pre and post-paid subscribers can simply click-to-buy using carrier billing, placing the charge on their Entel phone bill, for instant access to their favorite games, music, movies and more.
Commenting on the launch, the Market People Manager at Entel Chile, Matías del Campo, noted that, “At Entel we are proud of ourselves for offering the best services and products to our customers. Launching carrier billing in Google Play through the Bango Platform enhances our offering, providing a safe, easy to use payment method so our customers can enjoy the very best content on offer in the world’s biggest app store. These are the initiatives that allow us to bring people closer to the infinite possibilities that technology offers and in this way, responsibly transform the society”.
Latin America is the world’s second-fastest growing mobile region after Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet financial inclusion in the digital ecosystem is significantly low, with over 70 percent of Latin Americans being unbanked, (Americas Market Intelligence, 2016). Carrier billing enables anyone with a mobile phone bill to fully engage in the online ecosystem. In developing markets, app stores using carrier billing experience up to 1000 percent higher payment conversion rates compared to credit card.
With over 1 billion monthly active users and 94 billion app installs in 2017, Google Play is the leading global app store pre-installed on all Android devices. Combining the reach of Google Play, with the enhanced billing performance delivered by the Bango Platform, will deliver Entel Chile’s subscribers with the best payment experience available in this mobile hungry country.
To ensure continued carrier billing sales growth Entel, the largest operator in Chile, can use Bango comparative intelligence technology to evaluate their performance and boost both users and payment conversions. Operators relying on Bango data typically benefit from revenue uplifts between 20-40 percent, with some boosting revenue by more than 70 percent.
“Driven by increasing smartphone adoption and internet access people are spending more time and money on their phones, driving unprecedented growth in digital commerce. Increasing financial inclusion across the globe is a core focus for Bango,” commented Bango CEO, Ray Anderson. “This is the first Direct Carrier Billing launch for Google Play within South America. It follows the first Direct Carrier Billing launch for Google Play across Latin America with AT&T Mexico in 2015, also through the Bango Platform”.