Boku Inc. (LON:BOKU), a leading global mobile payment and mobile identity company, has announced the launch of a global direct carrier billing partnership between the retro-gaming streaming service Antstream and Boku’s subsidiary Fortumo. Gamers can now subscribe to Antstream and access more than 1000 games by charging the purchases to their mobile phone bill or prepaid SIM card. The first market launched for Antstream users is Poland, where 11 million subscribers of the telco Play can now pay for the service through their mobile operator bill.
Through a single connection to Fortumo’s platform, Antstream receives global access to the direct carrier billing capabilities of mobile operators connected to Fortumo. This enables Antstream to roll out the payment method at scale, instead of integrating and launching mobile operators one by one.
Carrier billing provides two advantages to digital content merchants over bank-based payments: payment reach and better conversion. In regions with low credit card ownership, such as Asia, MENA and Eastern Europe, carrier billing is used by merchants to reach new paying users who don’t own a credit card for online payments. In regions where credit card ownership is high, such as Western Europe, carrier billing provides a simpler checkout flow. Instead of filling out forms or logging into accounts, users are able to complete payments by simply confirming them with a PIN code. This results in a shorter checkout flow for carrier billing compared to other online payment methods, increasing payment conversion and revenue for digital content merchants.
Boku Inc also added that seperately, Fortumo has also recently launching direct carrier billing with the mobile operator 3Denmark and with the game developer Epic Games across multiple countries in Europe.
Greg Beitchman, Chief Revenue Officer at Antstream Arcade, said:
“We are delighted to be partnering with Fortumo to enable consumers to access thousands of retro games through their subscriptions with telco operators. Whether on set top box, mobile device or broadband, Antstream offers casual gamers the ability to play games with friends, access tournaments, and enjoy iconic titles from Space Invaders to Mortal Kombat for a monthly subscription. Fortumo will also enable Antstream to be easily bundled with data packages and alongside devices, giving telcos new options to offer gaming as a value-added service to consumers to through their monthly phone bill.”
Andrea Boetti, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Fortumo, commented:
“Cloud and streaming based gaming services are driving the next wave of growth in the video games industry, by enabling games to be played on any devices regardless of their specifications. The adoption of 5G by mobile operators in turn supports the adoption of cloud gaming. There is a natural fit between cloud gaming and carrier billing through mobile operators, as users can access the games and pay for them through the same network provider. Antstream is a leading company in the game streaming segment and we are excited to support their growth globally.”
