Why we need in-app billing: so you don't miss a second of your Angry Birds addiction.
Demand for mobile applications soared in 2010, due to the wave of increased smartphone ownership. More smartphones mean more users are availing themselves of access to thousands of third-party apps, such as gaming, music, and movies. Each of those apps is a wireless billing problem in need of a solution. Enter in-app billing (see yesterday’s blog).
In-app billing is triggered when an application enables you to play or listen until you reach a certain threshold when you have to buy the full version. It’s the idea of getting a “user” hooked on, for example, the Angry Birds game and cutting you off until withdrawal symptoms compel you to pay (it’s the #1 download in the App Store in case you haven’t heard—see this article at DownloadAndroid.com).
I spoke with Bango’s vice president of product marketing, Andy Bovingdon, about the growth of in-app billing. “With the arrival of the Apple and Google App Stores, people can try before they buy,” said Bovingdon. “We think that’s very much the wave of the future. But when it comes time to pay, you don’t want to make customers go to the App Store, you want the little single-click pay button to pop up on the screen right now for the charge to appear on your next cell phone bill. We think carrier billing is the way to go. You don’t have to enter a credit card number if you don’t want to. It’s just click and pay, even for a brand new customer.”
In September, Research in Motion (RIM; Ontario, Canada)) announced the first in-app carrier-billing solution for Blackberry with AT&T, powered by Bango and scheduled for launch in early 2011. The platform battle next year, according to Bango, will focus on developers as much as users, who will need to determine which of the app platforms to prioritize for development and distribution. Those that deliver the most revenue will capture the greatest mind-share.
How does Bango keep the customer safe? Says Bovingdon, separating the payment from the identification/authentication is the key.
“The first question is ‘Are the payment details secure? Can they be stolen?’ Payment details are sent in multiple pieces,” says Bovingdon, “and the network connections at the carrier level are very secure. It’s impossible for security to be breached unless your phone is stolen and you didn’t set an access password.”
According to Bovingdon, using the carrier as the biller makes things more secure. If your payment is coming from a different device or new carrier network, it’s a red flag because the password is associated with the device and carrier. That makes it much more secure than simply entering a credit card or using a password alone to secure the account. You can set up your account with a phone number and pin so that you can make payments from more than one device. Or you can choose the handset as the only device. For example, if a person changes their mobile phone five times in an hour, that’s an obvious alert to the biller.
A range of analytics products is also important to the application marketers. “App developers or brands spending dollars on marketing want to know how many people clicked on their ad or how many people downloaded their app and why did a payment fail?” said Bovingdon. Bango Analytics customers like Turner Broadcasting’s CNN and Cartoon Network and NASCAR use Bango mobile analytics on their websites and apps to understand track how many visitors they are getting and how to best optimize their experience and sell advertising.
Related Products
Mobile Billing by Bango: Collect payments from mobile websites or in-app using a Direct Billing API (no browser required).
Mobile Analytics by Bango: Gather unique user IDs for visitors, measure mobile advertising and marketing campaigns, measure mobile visitors, operator networks, and connections, including smartphones and WiFi.
