A study by payments provider mopay reveals that a growing number of consumers are opting to use direct carrier billing to complete mobile purchases, with online gaming and dating services leading the pack.
Direct carrier billing – where the purchase price of the goods or services are added to the users phone bill – are increasingly being seen as an alternative to other forms of mobile payments, as they are simple to do and easy to understand, says the study.
Within three years, mobile payments traffic from direct-to-carrier billing grew by a factor of almost four-fold, finds mopay, with more than 50 percent of direct-to-carrier billing purchases were made by returning customers. Carrier based billing also offers high conversion rates compared to other payment methods – with mopay converting between 52 and 63% of all first-time customers within a six-month timeframe and converted between 70 and 85% of its repeat users.
Over the course of the last three years, every one of mopay’s major mobile payments’ industries saw an increase in spending averages. The data also showed that spending averages differ significantly from industry to industry, ranging from below €2 for various mobile related services, to up to €10 and above for special interest social networking or entertainment offers.
“Based on our data it’s clear that consumers are embracing direct-to-carrier billing as a way to make payments quickly and easily for the online services they use every day,” said Ingo Lippert, CEO of MindMatics AG, the provider of mopay. “Our data shows that half of direct-to-carrier billing purchases were made by returning customers. This indicates that once consumers try our payment approach, they realize just how easy it is to use and continue to use the payment method. As more organizations adopt direct-to-carrier billing and consumers realize this option exists, we anticipate these numbers will continue to rise in the future.”
The study also revealed that, since online gaming was the industry that first discovered mobile payments as a fast, effective and easy payment method for its users, it was no surprise that mobile payments’ traffic in online gaming is still high, accounting for more than half of mobile payments’ turnover and growing at a rate of almost 30% year-to-year.
Over the course of the last three years, every one of the major mobile payments’ industries assessed by mopay saw an increase in spending average. From slight increases in online gaming (around 10%) and leveling off at around €3.50, to drastic increases in social gaming of almost 40%, passing €4 in 2011. The latter is due to social networks establishing themselves not only as communication channels but gaming platforms. Accordingly mobile payments, being an established payment method in the gaming industry, increased by six fold in turnover.
Online Dating also showed a solid showing over the last three years was made in online dating with direct-to-carrier billing spending ranking among the top-five industries with more than €5 and growing by 25%.
