Opportunity knocks for mobile operators

Posted on June 11, 2013 by

As the app economy continues its explosive growth, the world’s mobile network operators (MNOs) are fighting tenaciously to secure revenue from the mobile commerce flowing across their networks. As this battle between the MNOs and over the top services develops, operator billing is emerging as the most powerful weapon in the MNO armory.

By leveraging their trusted billing relationship with smartphone users, and offering a frictionless one-click payment experience, MNOs extending the use of operator billing are not just connecting to a world of commercial opportunity, they’re enhancing the user experience, driving up conversion rates and providing a boost to the entire app economy. Continue reading →

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It’s a Wi-Fi World

Posted on April 23, 2013 by

We’ve written in the past about the challenges of being a mobile network operator (MNO) in today’s highly connected mobile world. Here are some very simple statistics that demonstrate one of the problems that today’s MNOs grapple with, and an explanation of why so many are plugging into Bango.

The data refers to Bango’s mobile traffic across the majority of our partners, including both payment and analytics customers, during the first week of March 2013.

The overall sample size is in the tens of millions, and those users were using apps, visiting mobile news sites, buying games content and a huge variety of other activities on their phones and tablets. Continue reading →

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HTML5 apps – Thriving without an app store

Posted on April 19, 2013 by

Chantal Tode, writing for Mobile Marketer, has written a really interesting piece entitled “How to market HTML5 apps without the benefit of an app store”.

She touches on many of the issues that Bango’s payment customers wrestle with. The biggest difficulty faced by HTML5 apps is the absence of a focused distribution channel. Native apps by contrast have an excellent distribution platform that’s sitting on the phone’s home screen: the app store. Furthermore, a native app can be downloaded and will then leave an icon on the device, where an HTML5 app would require the user to set up a shortcut to the web to have the same ease of access. This isn’t complex, but neither is it intuitive. Of course mobile web app stores exist, and there is considerable OEM, developer and operator interest in Mozilla’s Firefox Marketplace, for example. Continue reading →

Posted in html5, mobile payment, Mobile payments | 1 Comment

Bango’s Ray Anderson responds to Facebook Home

Posted on April 5, 2013 by

Bango’s Ray Anderson responds to Facebook HomeSays it’s all about ‘the next billion’ users. Facebook will provide a frictionless social experience while Bango will provide frictionless payment for content and services.

Since mid-2012, Bango has been partnered with Facebook to provide mobile web carrier billing. Bango’s integration provides a frictionless payment experience to hundreds of millions of Facebook’s mobile users. Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook, mobile payment, operator billing | 1 Comment

Bango hits 100 operator connections

Posted on March 28, 2013 by

Bango (AIM: BGO) now has 100 mobile operator payment connections globally. Bango continues to expand the reach of its mobile payments platform to deliver its frictionless payment experience as widely as possible for the world’s leading content providers.

Bango’s 100th operator connection was in Columbia, connecting Telefónica subscribers into BlackBerry World. Those subscribers can now pay for digital goods and services without needing cards, pre-registered accounts or having to send SMS messages, instead they pay with one-click operator billing, charging purchases to their phone bill. This 100th connection means that Bango now has active connections in 47 countries, including the leading mobile operators in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and many more, and extends Bango’s reach to more than one billion mobile subscribers. Continue reading →

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Mobile World Congress 2013: The massive challenge and opportunity in front of the mobile operators

Posted on March 6, 2013 by

Mobile World Congress 2013

I come to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress every year. I often don’t see much of the expo or conference itself, as I stuff my diary with as many meetings as seems reasonable from my cosy office desk. Six meetings in a day is only reasonable on paper. Everywhere else it’s a battery-burning, laptop-dragging, patience-testing nightmare.

But this year I’ve scheduled fewer meetings, and given myself more time. So I’ve been wandering around the exhibition, soaking up the bigger picture. I’ve seen a few things I thought I’d share. Continue reading →

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Bango holds Nexus 2012: ‘Making money from the mobile web’

Posted on December 27, 2012 by

Last week Bango held the latest in its long-running Nexus event series, in San Francisco, CA. Bango Nexus is a prestigious, invite-only event that brings together key players shaping the mobile internet.

The theme this year was “Making money from the mobile web” – both the central opportunity and challenge for today’s giants of mobile. Consequently the speakers at Bango Nexus were charged with identifying the long-term strategies for effective mobile monetization. Continue reading →

Posted in carrier billing, digital content, in app billing, Mobile commerce, mobile payment, Mobile payments, mobile web | Tagged , | 1 Comment