Leading industry players in the app store ecosystem took part in the recent Bango webinar hosted by the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), discussing:

  • Does offering carrier billing for third party services cannibalizes operator revenues from traditional services
  • How carrier billing segments the subscriber base, identifying high spending customers
  • Why carrier billing is an essential payment method for operators

The latest carrier billing market stats and industry insights were shared. Evidence and analysis showed how app store carrier billing users spend more across all operator services. Additional benefits for operators were identified, including how carrier billing provides a tool for increasing customer satisfaction through unique insights and segmentation.

Led by Tim Green, talks were conducted by industry analyst Guillermo Escofet of Ovum, Cleiton Marcal from Nextel, Brazil, Francoise Pauwels from Proximus, Belgium and Anil Malhotra from Bango, the leading app store carrier billing provider.

By examining use cases across developed and emerging markets, the speakers explored the role of carrier billing in the post VAS mobile ecosystem, assessing the opportunities and challenges for mobile operators and stores, as well as the advantages for customers.

Gullermo Escofet, Principal Analyst of Ovum opened the webinar with a comprehensive overview of the Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) space and the notable benefits which DCB brings to the wider app store ecosystem. Guillermo used Brazil as a case study, where the desire for mobile gaming is astoundingly high, dominated by a mixture of leading global titles such as Clash Royale and home-grown content from local celebrities, TV shows and sports. However, only 28% of the population possess a credit card, a major barrier for the engaged, smartphone-savvy market. DCB is increasingly becoming popularised in the country, gaining the trust of Brazilians as a simple and safe payment method for digital content.

Clieton Marcal, Marketing Analyst of Nextel Brazil reiterated the benefits of DCB, claiming carrier billing is a key focus moving forward for the Brazilian mobile operator, being an essential service for unlocking engagement, subscriber fulfilment and enabling additional benefits to the market. “With carrier billing, we hope to equalise the high number of game downloads, with the currently low purchase rates. We also expect [carrier billing] to supply a high increase in revenues and long term success” said Clieton. Wrapping up his talk he highlighted the importance of strengthening the operator-subscriber relationship, with DCB identified as the key to that success.

The next area of discussion was from Proximus who dispelled the myth of Direct Carrier Billing cannibalization. It is widely believed that offering carrier billing cannibalizes operator revenues from traditional services. Francoise Pauwels, Product Manager DCB presented evidence that, contrary to common belief, subscribers do not have a fixed wallet size. When app store carrier billing is launched they maintain the same level of spending on data, voice and SMS services and spend additional money on app store content. The full analysis can be found in the [/resources/app-store-carrier-billing-transforming-subscriber-behavior](exclusive report) by Bango and Proximus.

Bango’s Anil Malhotra, CMO was the final presenter, discussing the importance for operators in identifying their DCB ‘gold card’ customers. These gold card customers are the most loyal, frequent spending, revenue spinning customers, often referred to as “whales”. These users are the cream of the crop for app store revenue success and must be looked after. “It is crucial to understand what, how and why your gold card customers are buying. What is the most popular in-app content? What are the current trends? What time of day do they most frequently purchase? Having this information enables you to identify and target the key revenue generating customers.” said Anil when discussing the key metrics for maximizing success of this customer segment. Ensuring these users are happy, loyal and engaged allows both mobile operators and stores to convert casual spenders into regular or high spenders and grants the ability to detect the latest app store trends to engage their customers further.

Click here to view a recording of the webinar.