Bango processes 3 million Payforit transactions
Vodafone joins O2 and T-Mobile to mandate Payforit
Premium SMS has been gradually replaced by a WAP billing experience for mobile content purchases according to Bango, which processed its 3 millionth Payforit transaction this month. With many of the UK’s largest mobile content providers – including The Sun, Gameloft and Sony BMG – using Bango to provide Payforit WAP billing, this migration will be further accelerated on June 2 when Vodafone joins O2 and T-Mobile to mandate Payforit compliance for mobile web content sales.
“Most of the leading content providers have adopted Payforit to bring a more transparent payment experience to their customers,” commented Anil Malhotra, SVP of Alliances at Bango. “We welcome Vodafone’s move that will also help to increase wider consumer awareness of Payforit. Despite the major increase in Payforit transactions, most mobile content buyers are unaware of the purpose of the Payforit brand.”
However, content provider branding will continue to be an important element of the WAP payment flow. “We encourage all moves to increase awareness of Payforit but the presence of The Sun brand is the most important factor when our customers buy from us,” said Andrew Bagguley, Head of Mobile Strategy at News International. “Providing continuity for our consumers at the point of purchase is critical for maintaining consumer confidence during a transaction.”
WAP billing has become popular among content providers because the improved consumer experience delivers significantly lower customer care costs. Bango has been processing Payforit transactions since 2007 and has achieved very high levels of billing success with refund levels of less than 0.1%.
In addition, Bango has analysed variances in marketing opt-in levels through the Payforit process. On some networks, the option to receive marketing offers from the content provider is “pre-checked”. In these cases, Bango has found that a month later 50% of consumers choose to remain opted-in. This contrasts sharply with networks where the default condition is for the user to be opted-out and where opt-in levels of just 10% are achieved while the user is completing their purchase.
Bango technology means there are no additional costs to content providers and no changes to their mobile sites needed to obtain Payforit compliance. To get advice on how to ensure the move to Payforit is as painless as possible, download a free Payforit guide at www.bango.com/payforit.
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