Mobile payments company Fortumo announced the launch in India, starting with direct carrier billing with four of the largest mobile operators, Vodafone, Airtel, Idea and Tata Domoco, in the country.
With 530 million mobile phone users, India has been a tough market for mobile payment providers due to outdated premium SMS technologies being widely used, making payment integration for mobile apps complicated.
“Rather than relying on old technologies which were meant for selling ringtones and wallpapers, Fortumo connects to operators directly through direct carrier billing. In this scenario, users do not need to send any messages. This makes payments faster, in turn increasing conversion and revenue for developers,” explained Gerri Kodres, SVP Business Development and Carrier Relations at Fortumo.
Founded in 2007, Fortumo partners with 300 telecom operators in 80 countries offering one-click payments through carrier billing. Fortumo works on desktop, in mobile apps and HTML5-powered webapps and support in-app purchases on Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 devices.
Fortumo’s Beijing office was set up in early this year and has reached deals with China’s three telecom operators. Not only does it help developers receive payments, it brings apps by Chinese developers to countries it has presence and apps from outside China to local app stores and telcos’ platforms.