Looking at just one of the world’s biggest app stores as an example, you can buy apps through Google Play in 136 countries worldwide, yet carrier billing is only available in 39 of those!
That means for operators in 97 countries, Google Play revenue is bypassing them and is instead being shared with credit card and gift voucher companies. Additionally, from a customer engagement perspective, their subscribers have less interaction with the operator brand and more with Visa or MasterCard. Finally, their customers have a more difficult user experience when they come to purchase their first game, app, in-app purchase or piece of music.
Bango’s mission to make it faster and more cost effective for app stores to integrate carrier billing, has been significantly enhanced with the launch of an online tool called Bango Grid. This tool provides app stores with a comprehensive set of industry sourced data about mobile operators in each country, including their technical capabilities, taxes, regulations and other vital information an app store needs when selecting an operator to launch with. Operators that supply and maintain information to the Bango Grid are therefore much more attractive to app stores because those stores know in advance that the operator will, for example, be able to provide flexible pricing or a refund API.
During July, Bango held a successful series of webinars explaining Bango Grid and underlining its value to operators. With over 100 operators attending, topics covered an industry perspective explaining why carrier billing is good for operators and app stores, as well as the progress the six major app stores who use carrier billing have made to date.
Sukey Miller, Marketing Manager from Bango shared her experience on what the top app stores ask for during their planning phase and what they see as the major obstacles which delay launch.
I was also pleased to have on the panel with me, the very knowledgeable Renzo Zanetti, who is Senior Digital Sales Manager from Telkom South Africa. He was able to explain the operator perspective and share the lessons that Telkom learnt when they connected to app stores, which included the importance of promoting the availability of carrier billing to their subscribers.
The webinar concluded with the opportunity for network operators to complete or update their Bango Grid profile information. I’d like to thank all those who attended and provided valuable data.
If you are an operator and would like to make sure app stores see your network in the best light, contact sukey@bango.com saying “I’d like to update my Grid data”.
If you are a mobile operator and you were unable to attend the live webinar, please send us an email request and we will send you a link to view the recording.