Kinguin & Play Poland launch direct carrier billing with Fortumo

The digital gaming marketplace Kinguin and the mobile operator Play have launched launched direct carrier billing in Poland through Fortumo.

More than 15 million Play subscribers can now purchase leading digital games, in-game content and software from Kinguin’s marketplace by conveniently charging the payments to their mobile phone bill.

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For Kinguin’s customers, paying with carrier billing is very simple. After selecting the product which they wish to purchase, they only need to enter their phone number and confirm the payment through a PIN code. Customers do not need to sign up for any additional accounts or enter their personal information to pay through Fortumo. Instead, the fee is charged to their mobile phone bill which means even those people without a bank account are able to make payments.

“Direct carrier billing works great. For many gamers this solution gives them freedom and security in their payments. They are very keen on using it. We are very happy to partner with Play. Our vision is to provide the growth potential of mobile payments in Poland and worldwide by providing seamless experience in the customer journey,” said Faheem Bakshi, Head of Payments at Kinguin.

"I am very happy to provide our clients with the possibility of making easy, fast and secure purchases on Kinguin. This is another step in the implementation of our strategy for the development of payments from Play, where using their phone number, players can do convenient and safe payments for their favorite games by adding a payment to their phone account or using the funds accumulated on their prepaid balance. I am convinced that many customers have been waiting for such a solution. #GamersGonnaPlay,” added Łukasz Tomaszek, Product Development Manager of Direct Billing at Play.

“Central & Eastern Europe is a very lucrative market for gaming merchants, as both traditional PC games and mobile content is very popular in the region. Mobile operators who keep investing into their payment platforms and bringing them to a competitive level with card-based payments have the opportunity to grab a chunk of this market, while growing mindshare among their subscribers as also a payment enabler. We are very excited to support Kinguin and Play in rolling out their partnership in Poland, growing revenue for all sides involved and giving gamers a simple, safe and secure method to pay for entertainment online,” said Andrea Boetti, Vice President of Global Business Development at Fortumo.

The carrier billing solution between Kinguin and Play was launched through Fortumo’s Hosted DCB. This payments product gives merchants access to the latest and most advanced technology made available by telecom companies (including dynamic pricing and automated refunds). At the same time, merchants don’t need to invest time into localization or compliance of the checkout flows as they are managed by Fortumo and localized for each country. Kinguin has been using Hosted DCB to collect payments from mobile users in Poland since June 2017.

In Poland, only 16% of people have a credit card to make online payments, while smartphone ownership is already at 70%. This means most people accessing online content have no way to pay for it. Carrier billing resolves this challenge by allowing any phone owner (both prepaid and postpaid) to charge online payments to their phone bill. Additional information on the digital ecosystem of Poland can be found from Fortumo’s Central & Eastern European market report.

Convenience of the solution and the lack of access to traditional online payment methods such as credit cards makes carrier billing the second most popular online payment method for digital gaming in Poland after eWallets. Mobile payments account for 20.4% of all gaming transactions in the country, according to SuperData Research. The situation is similar across the entire Central & Eastern European region where carrier billing holds a combined market share of 20.9% while card-based payments account for 18.1% of transactions.

Fortumo’s direct carrier billing platform is used by Google Play, Spotify, iflix, Sony, HOOQ, Gaana, EA Mobile, Gameloft, Kinguin, EasyPark and thousands of other merchants. One integration with the platform enables merchants to collect payments from subscribers of more than 350 mobile operators.