This week we can finally share the news we have been holding up for few weeks now. Most of you like to use our most open service- Premium SMS-connectivity, mainly because it allows you to integrate the payment to existing user experience and interface with ease. As most of you also run the services in several countries, it was inevitable that we had to build a multi-country support for our most popular and open service type.

You can now activate  your Mobile Payment or create other mobile value added service in 28 countries at once within 5 minutes with Premium SMS-Connectivity service. With this you can not only save time, but have only one integration for all the countries you work. This means you don’t have to do backend implementation for 28 countries, you set it up just for one service and you are online and ready to do business.

But wait, that’s not everything. We thought that when you run an international business, you most probably have also a lot of work to get all the promotional texts in order.  It’s pretty time consuming and boring to copy paste all the promotional materials for 28 countries in different languages.

No worries, we have thought for that as well. You can also setup your server to make API calls to Fortumo in order to automatically download promotional information in right format as an XML document. You can find the link to API call under Setup tab on your service view.

We hope you’ll like these improvements and don’t worry we have new surprises to come soon. Meanwhile stay tuned and check out what is the next country we’ll launch soon.

Well, this just might be a bit overdue, but we just felt the need to share some of the positive buzz and enthusiasm we experienced at biZbuZZ conference that took place in Niš, Serbia last month.

biZbuZZ is a annual conference dedicated to internet commerce, and it pretty much gathers most of Serbian internet ‘scene’ – and some of prominent bloggers, entrepreneurs and internet folk from the region. This year, we had the pleasure of participating with a keynote on mobile and micropayment in general, with a special focus on Fortumo’s take on the topic (you can see the English language version of presentation and video footage in Serbian after the brake).

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Nowadays everyone is speaking about virtual goods market- its key players and who should be involved. Some say it is only for social networks and online games, others are determine that others could also ride on that wave. It’s no wonder, analysts estimate, this year, virtual goods revenue will be $1 billion in the U.S. and about $5 billion worldwide. Another analyst predicts annual revenues will reach $15 billion by 2012. Things have become even more interesting as already universities have been involved to study virtual goods buying habits to have more solid projections for the whole ecosystem (you can read more from here). But what do we know about virtual goods market so far?

Online games were the first adopters of virtual goods. They started to offer users the ability to upgrade their game characters and tools with new features for a small fee. Many such games generate most of their revenue using a virtual goods model.

Social networks were the next ones, they enable members to send virtual hugs, cards and other gifts for much less than buying and mailing a tangible gift to a friend. As most of the people have an account in at least one social network, it has rapidly grew into really big business as everything is moving online these days.

Others, such as luxury brands are beginning to deal with virtual goods as add-on, just-for-fun services. Such companies choose to adopt virtual goods as it is a great way for brands to get additional reach and put a brand in an environment where people can interact with it.

The biggest benefit is the incredible profit margin for virtual goods. Online games for example are providing virtual goods that do not have outstanding manufacturing or physical distribution costs. Marketing virtual goods is minimal as well—most promotion occurs via social media. So basically everything they make is the pure profit.

It is an interesting time with a lot of opportunities and I believe many cool changes are to come. So lets get all virtual and be part of the revolution. I also advice to see the presentation below about virtual goods market in Asia, you’ll be surprised what is actually happening there.

Sumatra and Java are not the only treasures you are related to with Indonesia. This is the most rapidly growing mobile commerce market in the South East Asia, with annual 18% growth rate (2007-2010 est.). It is also the “BIGGEST” mobile market in South East Asia, with 144.64 million mobile subscribers (Q1 2009).

In order to help our users to explore the potential, Fortumo has been working on the connectivity to this archipelago state for more than half an year. Despite all the complicities and difficulties, we are finally ready to lift the veil and present the “precious” – Indonesia, to you.

Market Scan:
Population: 230 Millions
Mobile Subscribers: 144.64 Millions (Q1 2009)
Mobile Penetration: 56.8%
Mobile Internet users: 146 Millions (2010 est)
Operators supported: Telkomsel, Indosat, Excelcomindo
Billing Method: MT Billing

Indonesians sent out more than 1 billion SMS in the last Christmas and New Year season alone. People are keen to the SMS media here. Why not start to polish your creative mind and take the advantage fortumo offers to discover this tropical paradise.

This time in section Fortumo user tells a story we would like to introduce you a neat web and SMS-service developed by Lapadoo. translate.lapadoo.com is a web based translation service that brings translation to your cellphone. No need to have any separated application or even Internet access, the whole translation is done via SMS.

“The service is intended for all those who need translation help while being abroad without access to a computer or dictionary. All you need is to know the phrase you want to translate and your cell phone. “

Where did the idea of offering and starting a service like that come from?

Like many other good ideas, the mobile translation service was born while drinking beer with my buddies. One of my friends was telling me about a comical failure he had due to not understanding the local language. While listening to his story, it suddenly occurred to me – I should make a  service that allows people to translate sentences from one language to another despite the location and situation.

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It is hottest topic in the web biz world. No matter it’s on TC, Virtual Goods News, Venture Beat or even BBC, people everywhere are talking about the vitality of the virtual goods market in Asia. Many people are stunned by the fact that the biggest market of virtual goods is actually not in USA but in Asia. In a matter of fact, the VG in Asia is actually a $5 billion market in 2008, which is 25 times bigger than the States.

Indeed, most people from other parts of the world have just realized Asia has been in the leading position of VG for quite a while already. No matter on SNS or on web games, in China or in South Korea, the Asian counterparts seem to be steps ahead in terms of virtual goods monetization comparing to other places.
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