After signing a deal in February to power Facebook’s mobile payment solutions, Bango has today confirmed it is powering the carrier billing platform offered to users in the US, UK and Germany, expanding it to more countries worldwide by the end of the year.
In a filing with the London Stock Exchange (first spotted by TechCrunch), Bango announced it is integrating within Facebook’s mobile platforms to pave the way for digital content purchases without the need to enter payment details or sending premium rate SMS messages.
Bango’s technology, which is already powering solutions offered by Amazon, RIM (via its BlackBerry App World) and Google Play, deducts funds from a user’s existing mobile plan, keeping transactions secure while making them seamless in their operation.
Facebook rolled out carrier billing in June and has since detailed new ways for developers to integrate different mobile payment solutions into their apps. Bango says the difference between the June release and today’s announcement is that in June Bango pushed “the service live for developers to build around, and now we’re actually live for Facebook users to buy things and charge the cost to their phone bill.”
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With carrier billing estimated to achieve a 40% conversion rate, Bango’s CEO Ray Anderson hopes that the rollout will boost mobile purchases on Facebook:
“We are delighted to bring Bango’s payment experience to Facebook. As the mobile web experience has matured and improved, consumers are increasingly keen to purchase digital goods on mobile devices. By ensuring a frictionless payment experience, Bango technology is unlocking the business potential of the mobile web.”
Shortly after signing its deal with Bango, Facebook CTO Brett Taylor announced at this year’s Mobile World Congress that the company was rolling out new tools to help its users and app developers interact better with Web apps.
Taylor discussed Facebook’s Pay Dialog mobile SDK, allowing mobile operators to work with app developers to integrate operator billing into their apps. Facebook has already partnered with AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, T-Mobile USA, Verizon, Vodafone, KDDI, SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp.
This means Facebook will likely add Japan to its list of supported countries in the coming months.
The SDK automatically makes operator billing available on a user’s device as long as they have a device on one of the above carriers and developers have included the Pay Dialog call in their apps.
Facebook is going big with mobile advertising and revenue opprtunities. Last week it updated its Offers platform, making it a paid service that required brands and businesses to put down at least $5 in advertising fees to see their Offer listed and circulated on user News Feeds.
Image Credit: Karen Bleier
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