Telenor Serbia Taps Fortumo to drive direct carrier billing

The mobile payment company Fortumo and the mobile operator Telenor are launching direct carrier billing for consumers in Serbia.

More than 2 million Telenor customers can now make purchases of digital services and games in app stores, by paying through their phone bills.

Serbia is the 7th country in which Fortumo and Telenor have launched carrier billing. Previously, the two companies already worked together in Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Myanmar.

"As part of our strategy to become the preferred partner in the digital lives of our customers, we are enabling content that creates high value for them. There are different ways for operators to enable use of digital services and payment through the monthly bill will further simplify purchasing, which does not require a credit card," said Nenad Hasura, Consumer Services Manager.

“Giving customers better access to digital services increases their loyalty and reduces churn. Making premium content available through carrier billing is one way to achieve that. Telenor is one of the most innovative telco companies in the world which has tapped this strategy successfully. We are looking forward to the growth of our partnership in Serbia,” said Martin Koppel, CEO & Co-Founder of Fortumo.

In Serbia, approximately three times more people have smartphones than credit cards (45% and 15%, respectively). This means the majority of customers accessing online contents are unable to pay for premium services. Carrier billing resolves this problem by enabling online payments for all postpaid and prepaid Telenor subscribers.

Carrier billing has three main benefits over credit cards: reach (more customers have access to the payment method), simplicity (payments are completed in seconds without the need to log in or enter any payment details) and security (no personal details need to be shared, mitigating the problem of online fraud).

As a result, in Eastern European markets with a similar profile to Serbia, carrier billing has grown to be the second most popular payment method for digital gaming. In the region, carrier billing holds a 20.9% market share out of all digital gaming transactions, according to the research company SuperData Research.

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