Verizon will launch Danal's BilltoMobile
payment service later this spring, enabling Verizon Wireless customers
to charge online purchases of digital goods directly to their monthly
Verizon Wireless bills.
Verizon
Wireless customers will be able to pay for online content and digital
goods that are downloaded and consumed on their personal computers from
Danal's participating network of popular eCommerce merchant partners.
The mobile
payment service will feature a $25-per-month
spending limit for these purchases, along with content and parental
controls for individual accounts, giving account owners the ability to
manage their BilltoMobile usage. When available, customers with text
messaging-enabled phones will be able to shop quickly, securely and
conveniently for Verizon Wireless-approved content at online stores,
including game sites, social networks and virtual worlds. Users will
also be able to purchase subscriptions to popular online games.
"Verizon
Wireless strives to bring its customers services and features they want
and that make their lives simpler," said Ryan
Hughes, vice president of business development at Verizon
Wireless. "Working with Danal will give our customers the opportunity
to make direct online mobile payments with the most secure,
feature-rich, convenient method available."
"Verizon
Wireless is combining the convenience of the mobile phone and its strong
billing platform to provide their customers with a convenient mobile
payment option," remarked Jim Greenwell,
chief executive officer of Danal, Inc. in the
United States. "Verizon Wireless is the bellwether service
provider in this space, and we see this agreement will likely be the
beginning of a change in the industry's approach to online mobile
payments -- one that involves ease of use and strong security for
subscribers' mobile payments, as well as robust user controls that will
help individual subscribers and families manage their digital purchases
and digital lives."
The
BilltoMobile payment service is simple for consumers. To conduct a
transaction, consumers click on the BilltoMobile button during checkout
at a participating online Web site and then input their mobile numbers
and mobile billing zip codes for subscriber authentication. A text
message is then sent to consumers' mobile phones with a one-time
passcode. Once consumers input this passcode into the online checkout
window, the transaction is completed. The entire process takes about 15
seconds, and there is no pre-registration or links to credit cards or
bank accounts required. In Korea, where Danal is the dominant mobile
payments provider -- and where credit card penetration rates are even
higher than in the United States -- 80
percent of all mobile subscribers have chosen to use direct mobile
billing, and up to 60 percent of all online digital content purchases in
Korea are now billed directly to mobile accounts.
BilltoMobile
is now partnering with prominent online merchants in the United States, including popular online
game publishers, virtual worlds, social networks, and other sites
selling digital items, content and services online. The attractive
merchant fees associated with the BilltoMobile payment service, which
are significantly lower than traditional mobile billing rates, along
with strong security and merchant back office tools, is creating a major
network of participating online sites. Danal will be announcing some
of its signed merchant agreements in the near future.