Brands can now sell their content direct-to-consumer in Germany
Bango, the mobile content enabler, has added Premium SMS and operator billing in Germany to its range of payment options. This means that German consumers can now pay for content and services such as ringtones, games, music, videos and adult content on their phone bill.
Brands and content owners can now market and sell content direct-to-consumer in Germany with their own branded site – a ‘browse and buy’ shop on the mobile internet. Brands extend the direct, interactive relationship they already have with their consumers, in print, broadcast or on the Web, into the mobile medium with total flexibility on the product offers and pricing. Now thousands of content providers already using Bango to sell their content in various markets can bill directly in Germany.
Bango provides the technology to enable brands to market, sell and deliver their services to mobile phone users. Users on the four main German operators – Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2 and E-Plus – are offered ‘on bill’ as a payment option. Bango supports Premium SMS in Germany and has integrated directly with Vodafone Germany’s own billing system as part of the company’s strategy to plug into the operator’s own billing system where possible. Bango recently announced ‘on bill’ payment for Cingular Wireless subscribers in the US.
“Bango has become the only universal platform that integrates different mobile billing systems from around the world into one service and fills the gap left by the closure of Simpay,” said Anil Malhotra, VP of Alliances and Marketing at Bango. “Germany is the largest mobile phone market in Europe with over 74 million subscribers and offers a huge potential market for brands.”
Content owners and brands already using the Bango Service can bill in Germany with no additional cost to their regular monthly fee. New customers simply register their mobile content through a web service at www.bango.com.
Content providers then use the Bango Service to enable access to mobile content through text ‘trigger’ using German shortcodes – 82008 for universal content and 84324 for over 18 content – and website ‘triggers’. Content providers control the pricing and promotion of their content on-line and keep track of traffic and revenues in real-time through the same web service. Pricing is automatically localized for customers depending on which country they are accessing from.