Bango enables Google Play carrier billing for Smartfren

Image credit: ymgerman / Shutterstock.com

Mobile payments company Bango has announced that Indonesian cellco Smartfren has used the Bango Payment Platform to launch one-click carrier billing payment for Google Play customers. 

Smartfren pre- and post-paid customers on the network can use carrier billing to pay for the wide variety of Google Play content. With one-click payment powered by Bango, subscribers can pay via their phone bill, without the need to register personal details.

“Smartfren is pleased to launch carrier billing in Google Play, allowing our customers to purchase content by placing the charge on their mobile phone bill,” said Revie Sylviana, senior VP of digital services at Smartfren. “We chose to activate another app store through the Bango Platform as it enabled us to launch Google Play fast and risk-free.”

The Smartfren launch is actually the 15th app store carrier billing activation through the Bango Platform in Indonesia. Bango has launched multiple direct carrier billing (DCB) routes across each of the top five operators in Indonesia, enabling hundreds of millions of users to fully engage with the leading app stores from Google, Microsoft, BlackBerry and Samsung.

“The relationships Bango has in Indonesia have created a country-wide standard for app store billing,” said Bango CEO Ray Anderson. “Launching our 15th app store carrier billing route in Indonesia is a proud milestone for Bango, further extending our footprint across Asia.”

After China and India, Indonesia is the third largest smartphone market in Asia with over 55 million users, according to eMarketer, 2016. However, only 4 million people in the country have a credit card. Alternative payment methods, such as DCB are rapidly becoming the digital content payment method of choice, facilitating unprecedented growth in financial inclusion, Anderson said.

“Indonesian operators recognize that carrier billing is a mainstream payment method for digital content,” he said.

Be the first to comment

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.