The Estonian mobile payments startup, Fortumo, has announced a direct carrier billing partnership with Smart Communications, the largest mobile operator in the Philippines that will allow its subscribers to pay for games conveniently through their phone.
“The Philippines is a market which is very well suited for this kind of operator billing payment. Through the deal with Fortumo, our subscribers will enjoy the ease of paying for many global games and apps through their phones,” Orlando B. Vea, Smart’s chief wireless advisor, said in a statement.
The Philippines has an extremely low penetration of credit cards, so only very few people can make payments online. Compared with the 104 million mobile phones in circulation, there are less than three million credit cards in circulation.
Fortumo’s direct carrier billing solution – in which a user does not need to send any text messages to complete the payment – is now available to more than 2.5 billion end-users globally.
Fortumo allows any merchant to set up payment processing for web and mobile services, games or apps. Users with a mobile phone are then able to make one-click payments using Fortumo without the need for a credit card – payments are charged to their mobile operator bill instead.
