Boku acquisition Fortumo inks deal with Myanmar's Mytel
By Josh White
Date: Wednesday 12 Aug 2020
(Sharecast News) - Mobile payments and identity company Boku announced on Wednesday that its recently-acquired subsidiary Fortumo has launched a direct carrier billing partnership with Myanmar mobile operator Mytel.
The AIM-traded firm said Mytel subscribers could now pay for games, in-app content and digital services by charging purchases to their postpaid phone bill, or prepaid SIM card.
Fortumo's hosted DCB and web SDK solutions allow digital service providers to launch direct carrier billing in a scalable manner, the Boku board said.
The subsidiary would manage the checkout flow and localisation on behalf of its merchants, accelerating the time-to-market and reducing the amount of development work needed to launch the payment method, according to the board.
It said the same integration could be used to collect payments from Mytel, and more than 280 other mobile operators globally, connected to Fortumo's platform.
In Myanmar, less than 1% of people have a credit card, while over 80% of people own a smartphone.
That, the board said, created a problem for digital merchants, that while most people could access online content, the vast majority were unable to pay for premium services using traditional card-based methods.#
Carrier billing solves that for digital merchants, by allowing any user to charge online payments to their phone bill, while not requiring users to create an account, or give up personal data during the checkout process.
Fortumo had recently announced direct carrier billing on Google Play for Tune Talk in Malaysia, and Ufone in Pakistan.
"Myanmar's rapid growth in smartphone ownership has created strong interest from digital content merchants in expanding into the country," said Fortumo's vice-president of telco partnerships Taavi Krusell.
"We are excited to be working with Mytel and giving their subscribers a way to access high-quality digital content, as well as pay for premium services through their phone bill."
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