Carrier billing company Fortumo and Mitashi have struck a partnership wherein mobile device manufacturer can start collecting payments made by users of its smartphones in 88 countries through carrier billing. Mitashi will also get access to the portfolio of top games and apps of developers who are already using Fortumo’s payment solutions.
Commenting on the association, Mitashi Edutainment VP – gaming, toys and telecom Adnan Chara, “Mitashi ThunderBolt has by far been one of the best selling consoles series in India. At Mitashi, we believe in partnering with the best to offer products that provide unmatched value to our end consumers. Towards this endeavor of providing more quality content so that through our devices consumer can start enjoying an unparalleled gaming experience right from the word go, in the past we have associated with Disney & Electronic Arts. We have now chosen Fortumo as a content providing partner and look forward to leveraging their coverage in the app and game development industry.”
“In emerging markets like India, credit card ownership is almost non-existent – this means most users with online access are not actually able to make payments on their phone. We’re excited to partner with Mitashi and enable their end-users to take advantage of carrier billing, the most widely available payment method today,” added Fortumo India head Sanjay Sinha.
In markets where Fortumo provides direct carrier billing, payment conversion for first-time payments is close to 40 per cent and higher for repeat purchases. Fortumo provides device manufacturers using carrier billing with developer onboarding and support, creating & maintaining payments APIs and SDKs as well as handling compliance, taxation and payouts to developers.
Direct carrier billing with Fortumo enables users make payments over a data connection by confirming payments with one click on their phone. Since the mobile operator has all the information necessary to process the payment, this removes the need to send any text messages during the payment process.
Mitashi will now get access to games and apps from developers like Glu Mobile, Second Gear Games, 7k7k Games and Zeptolab. With Fortumo, developers need to do just one payment integration to enable carrier billing for end-users in 88 markets.
Fortumo adds Mitashi to its long list of Asian platform owners, including device manufacturers like ZTE, Alcatel Onetouch, Oppo, Gionee and leading third-party Android app stores such as Turkcell AppMarket, Telenor Apps & Changyou’s Mobogenie.