O2 and Tanla Mobile Bring PayForIt to Market

[Backman]

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Europe UK : Tanla Mobile and O2 have entered into an agreement under which Tanla may sell or market commercial WAP services to any O2 Subscriber via PayForIt mobile billing services in the UK.

Tanla Mobile - selected earlier this year as an intermediary granted ‘accredited payment’ status across all mobile operators–will work closely with O2 in the delivery of PayForIt mobile payment services.

PayForIt is the cross operator initiative that has been heralded as a future driving force behind making mobile commerce a reality for UK consumers, content and service providers alike. On the 1st September 2007 operators such as O2 are permitting accredited partners to deliver PayForIt (a WAP based billing service) as part of their offering.

PayForIt enables a ‘click and buy’ experience similar to a purchase consumers make on a mobile operator portal or ‘traditional’ internet shopping.

PayForIt is a true micro transaction initiative as consumers can buy goods and services priced up to a maximum of £5-£10 depending on the operator. It is believed that PayForIt will become the de-facto standard for payments of this value as consumers are expected to increasingly use their mobile device for low value transactions.

Nigel Dean, Head of Interactive Sales, O2 UK, said: “The mobile payments market has been growing exponentially with an increased consumer demand for digital content and services. O2 is committed to working with partners such as Tanla Mobile to provide the next generation of mobile commerce through the Payforit mobile payments initiative"

Speaking about Tanla Mobile’s appointment as an accredited payment partner, Gautam Sabharwal, Director for Tanla Mobile, said: “PayForIt will be an important turning point for the mobile industry. There has been much debate and action focused on improving mobile billing. The interest we are seeing from customers supports this; the demand for mobile services has never been greater.”

PayForIt is a massive departure for the mobile industry and provide consumers with a greatly improved mobile experience. Due to the limitations of current payment technologies mCommerce has been categorised by the sales and downloads of ring-tones, pictures, logos and novelty purchases. The evolution of a single and seamless payment service will see the mCommerce marketplace grown inexorably.

Payforit will also help digital content providers in monetising mobile search engine traffic leading to greater consumer uptake of mobile services and increased return on investment.

About Tanla Mobile

Tanla Mobile is a leading innovator of next-generation mobile application solutions, m-commerce and interactive services. Tanla Mobile specialises in developing mobile applications and platforms for the Mobile Telecoms, Media and Digital Communications sector. Tanla Mobile works in partnership with global mobile operators across Asia, Europe and North America to deliver and bill mobile content over SMS, WAP, MMS, Video, etc.

With direct connections and commercial revenue sharing agreements with global mobile operators including 3 (Hutchison 3G), O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Virgin Mobile and several Indian network operators, clients use its carrier-grade technology platform and application development expertise for immediate deployment of interactive mobile services. Its product suite includes Mobile Payments Solutions, Campaign Management, Content Management, 3G Video Management and Interactive TV Management applications, all of which are supported by powerful online reporting and CRM tools.

[Gino51]

WORLD TELEMEDIA PRAGUE
Does Payforit do it?
15/11/2007 17:41:23

Not according to many of the content providers attending What Are New Billing Technologies Doing For Content Sales? conference session in Prague last week.

Payforit, the British payment scheme for digital items up to £10 which has so far only been adopted by O2, came in for some stick at the

It was set up to stop the recurrence of content subscription rip-offs (you know, you buy a ringtone and then are charged XX a month forever because you can’t stop it) and give the public confidence.

Well in the first place the public hasn’t got a clue and couldn’t careless about Payforit.

In the second place, as panellist Oliver Ripley, senior product manager, Tanla Mobile, pointed out that many content providers who’ve been running a successful business for years using premium rate SMS have the attitude of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

In the third place, as a very persistent member of the audience asked, “Why does it take four clicks before the user gets to hand any money over?” Iain McCallum, head of interactive messaging at O2 had quite a bit of trouble giving any sensible answer to that one but said he’d look into it. The O2 man also insisted that his company had not seen a drop in revenues as a result. The persistent man in the audience insisted lots of content providers have.

In the fourth place, the plan is that Payforit would be ubiquitous in the UK market, but only O2 has signed up and there is no guarantee the others will, although they supported its development.

In the fifth place, there’s are lots of outstanding issues such as the opt-in page isn’t optional (which seems to wind a lot of content providers up because they haven’t got terms equivalent to the operators who are allowed to use CRM to market to customers who’ve agreed to it once and don’t have to agree to receive material every time). Also scheme rules only compel content providers to offer an email address, not a phone number, in case of any problems.

And ultimately, who cares? The credit card companies are beginning to get their teeth into mobile and online and elsewhere credit cards are being used for ever smaller amounts.