Fortumoblog

8 key elements that make social gaming successful

Martin Koppel — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:27:14 +0000

A week has passed from Gamescom in Cologne- the event where industry key players introduce their new stuff and make partnership deal for the future. And yes a place where youngsters are basically killing each other to play some cool demo game.

Like in every year cool console games and almost real-life PC games got a lot of attention, but this year social gaming got an extra attention. Why? Mostly since it’s growing like bamboo. FarmVille has over 82.4m uses, FishVille got 0.87m users within two days after launch.

But it’s not only Zynga, the entire industry has been rocketing for the last few years. Social gaming market in EU and US together was $490m in 2009 and it is expected to almost double in 2010 and reach $840m. Is it all due to phenomenon of Facebook? Actually not, since these numbers are like candy money compared to Asia where the market hit $7b in 2009.

In general it is all due to the social effects in games, no matter is it in Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, QQ, Odnaklassniki or somewhere else. Because when a game is built on top of an existing platform, it has the opportunity to connect a user with their entire network of friends.

But what are actually the key elements that make social gaming successful?

1. Everyone who has internet can be potential players
2. It’s mostly free to play
3. Social network provides a great infrastructure for advertising and the game to go viral
4. It creates competition between friends
5. It’s interactive
6. It enables co-operation
7. Regularly scheduled tournaments/offers keep people playing
8. It gives people an opportunities to win prizes

A place that excites: Latin America!

Triin Mahlakoiv — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:58:58 +0000

“Everyone has a Latino inside them,“ Paulina Rubio, Mexican singer

At the end of July Fortumo made a leap further than usual and expanded to Latin America.

Fortumo users are now invited to create mobile services in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. A month in the Latino market has illustrated that it is a growing economy.

Latin America is the region of the America where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) are primarily spoken. As the name – Latin America – illustrates, it is a region with a combination of Europe and America.

The population (568 million!) of Latin America comprises a variety of ancestries, ethnic groups, and races, making the region one of the most diverse in the world.

The colonial and immigration periods have left many influences into Latin America’s culture, making it especially rich and diversified. One of the main characteristics of Latin America is its music and dance – from the lively rhythms to the more austere sounds and moves. Salsa, merengue, tango, bossa nova, and recently added reggaeton – make hearts beat all over world.

Also, Latin America has the world’s highest waterfall (Angel Falls), largest rainforest (the Amazon rainforest), greatest river (the Amazon) and longest mountain range (the Andes) that reside on the area of approximately 21,069,500 km². Plus, did you know that river Amazon is visible from space?!

All in all – Latin America is big in numbers and opportunities!

Concerning the mobile penetration in Latin America – it is approximately 80% (458 million people owning a mobile phone) that is well above the world average. Latin America’s broadband market, however, is one of the fastest growing in the world. Internet market is also expanding – already having over 200 million Internet users.

Angel Falls

Besides all the greatness that Latin America has to offer, it is a significant location to conquer, as it is the only place in the world where festivals are held throughout the year!

You can start new mobile services in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela right now. We wish you Buona fortuna in Latin America!

Fortumo user tells a story – baromeeter.ee

Marianne Voime — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:21:16 +0000

This month’s Fortumo user’s service is a great example of how every citizen can take part in country’s politics and government work. It is an innovative and simple way for everyone to say what they think. And all this – with the help of Fortumo’s services! Check out the interview with Meelis Valtna, one of the founders of this great idea!

What is your website baromeeter.ee about?
Exaggeratedly and primitively said baromeeter.ee is “political rate” – for Estonians it says much (rate.ee is a very popular social network in Estonia based on ratings – M.V.). It is a laconic, emotionless website where you can assess Estonian parties’, government’s and parliament’s work.

Whom is it for?
Correct answer would be, of course, for everyone. Actually, baromeeter.ee is an effort to bring young people closer to politics through rating system which is very popular online activity for most of the young people in Estonia. In addition, giving votes and having rankings is playful and offers instant feedback. With this we also hope to give voice for those, who are in distance, doing their everyday stuff and mumble “My voice means nothing. So, it doesn’t matter.”. Well, it does matter and you can see the proof from baromeeter.ee! We also consider very important to recognise less known countryside politicians, who are not reflected that much in everyday news, but who do honest and genuine politics for their parish or town people.

Where did the idea of offering and starting a website like that come from?
The idea came in a small international company with friends of mine. We were discussing and commenting politicians’ everyday work and, suddenly, we started to wonder – why there is no place online where you can politely say to politicians – jerks! From there on we continued in a balanced state – if you want to say deservedly something bad to someone, you should also have an opportunity to say something nice for dignified and good action. Then, within few minutes, were born drafts with parliament’s honor and shame panels.

Where did the idea of using mobile payments come from?
SMS-voting seemed to be most trustful and operative way. All other voting systems didn’t suit us because of their slowness, inconvenience and their ease of manipulation.

How have you applied Fortumo mobile payments on your website?
Every praise and dispraise about parliament’s and government member goes through Fortumo mobile payment solution.

Why did you decide to use Fortumo for your online web-business?
The idea of baromeeter.ee started from an international company and we will most definitely start to work similarly in some other countries. We made a deal that Estonian website will be a “testlab” and indicator for IT-platform, voting system, etc. Our foreign partners also liked Fortumo, ‘cause it’s very easy to use internationally and with Fortumo’s services we will save a lot when we open other similar websites.

What have Fortumo mobile payment services additionally given you?
Simple and clear international service for voting is exactly what we need for our website. Fortumo is also good to keep our eye on all the earnings when operating in many countries at once. In addition to speed and dynamics, Fortumo is of course reliable. You cannot buy trust from any store, thus we are very pleased that we can have “additional services” – reliability with SMS-voting system and international partnership.

What is your website baromeeter.ee about?
Exaggeratedly and primitively said baromeeter.ee is “political rate” – for Estonians it says much (rate.ee is a very popular social network in Estonia based on rating – edit.). It is a laconic, emotionless website where you can assess Estonian parties’, government’s and parliament’s work.

Whom is it for?
Correct answer would be, of course, “for everyone”. Actually, Baromeeter is an efford to bring young people closer to politics through a rating system that is very popular online activity for most of the young people in Estonia. In addition, giving votes and having rankings is playful and offers instant feedback. With this we hope to give voice also for those, who are in distance, doing their everyday stuff and mumble “My voice means nothing. So, it doesn’t matter”. Well, it does matter and you can see the proof from baromeeter.ee! We also consider very important to recognize less known countryside politicians, who are not reflected that much in everyday media, but who do honest and genuine politics for their parish or town people.

Where did the idea of offering and starting a website like that come from?
The idea came from a small international company of my friends. We were discussing and commenting politicians’ everyday work and, suddenly, started to wonder – why there is no a place online where you can politely say for politicians – jerks!
From there we continued balanced – if you want to say deservedly something bad to someone, you should also have an opportunity to say something nice for dignified and good action. Thus, within few minutes, were born drafts with parliament’s honor and shame panels.

How have you applied Fortumo SMS-services on your website?
Every praise and dispraise about parliament’s and governement member goes through Fortumo SMS-service.

Where did the idea of using SMS-services come from?
SMS-voting seemed to be most trustful and operative way. All other voting systems didn’t suit us because of their slowness, inconvenience and their ease for manipulation.

Why did you decide to use Fortumo SMS-services for your online web-business?
The idea of baromeeter.ee started from an international company and we will most definitely start to work similarly in some other countries. We made a deal that Estonian website will be so said testing site and indicator for IT-platform, voting system, etc. Our foreign partners also really liked Fortumo, ‘cause it’s very easy to use internationally and with Fortumo’s services we will save a lot when open other similar websites.

What have Fortumo SMS-services additionally given you?
Simple and clear international service for voting is exactly what we need for our website. Fortumo is also good for us to keep our eye on the earnings when operating in many countries at once. In addition to speed and dynamics, Fortumo is of course reliable. You cannot buy trust from any shop, thus we are very please that we can have as an “additional service” also trust in SMS-voting system and international partners.

A new star on the horizon

Marianne Voime — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:55:44 +0000

It’s time to congratulate Fortumo big time! We have reached a round number of countries again – 40! Let the Vietnamese flag’s star be the one representing this great event (like a red cherry on top of a vanilla ice-cream)!

Yes, you heard it right – Vietnam is the 40th country in our solid portfolio. By connecting Vietnam we continue to explore the Asian region.

Vietnam is the most densely populated country in Southeast Asia with over 86 million people. This makes Vietnam the 14th most populous country on the globe. It is larger than Italy and almost the size of Germany!

Vietnam is very rich in history, culture and nature. Its history dates back 2700 years and embraces different periods of domination, invasions, colonization and independence. During the French colonial period, Vietnamese culture received merchant influences from the Europeans, including the spread of Catholicism and the adoption of Latin alphabet. To this day, Vietnam is the only non-island nation of Indochina, which uses the Latin alphabet to write in the national language.

Regarding the nature and the environment, Vietnam has been blessed with two of the World Natural Heritage sites: Halong Bay and Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and six World biosphere reserves!

Concerning the mobile market in Vietnam – it has been especially dynamic and fast growing. There were almost 70 million subscribers at the start of 2009, with 80% of mobile penetration. The same goes for the Internet with almost 25 million active users!

Sounds interesting? Check the country info here and launch a new mobile payment in Vietnam right away!

Vietnam is definitely not the last country we will surprise you with, so stay tuned for new exciting destinations coming up any time soon.

View over Saigon

Let Fortumo take you to Budapest

Branimir Parashkevov — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:02:44 +0000

July is the hottest month of the year. This is the perfect time for sunbaths, beach parties and cool cocktails. Nevertheless, at Fortumo we have decided to sacrifice all of these in order to keep the high expansion rate of ours. We sat down and had a look at Fortumo’s coverage map. It came as no surprise that Fortumo covers all countries in Central Europe….but one. Guess what happened then? You guessed right – we added this market, too.

Let me introduce you to Hungary – the newest country in the Fortumo family.

When Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi was asked if he believed in extraterrestrials, he simply replied:

“They are among us, but they call themselves Hungarians.”

Fermi was most probably right. This country in the heart of Europe has unique culture that is being formed for thousands of years. Hungary is the place where you can see 2000 year old Roman ruins and 400 year old Turkish monuments side by side. It is there where you can see the largest fresh water lake in Europe – lake Balaton. And if you believe that beauty comes with the age – then visit one of the world’s most beautiful cities: Budapest, the “Pearl of the Danube”. Unfortunately, Fortumo cannot get you to a trip there, but we can help you earn much more by running your services in Hungary.

Hungary pride itself with mobile penetration of over 116% and about 10 million people population. Since its accession to the EU in 2004, it gets nearly one third of all foreign direct investment flowing into Central Europe (more than US$185 billion since 1989). As in the latest years the recession has decreased these benefits, the market has opened for new entrants. Every innovative service has its place reserved there. We believe in your business model that is why we offer you the tools to get there on time.

Do not waste more time. Start your services in Hungary now! Be mobile!

Fortumo user tells a story – Offline Maps for Android

Martin Koppel — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:53:58 +0000

Last week in an event I promised to write about real life example of a client who is using In-App Payments for Android. Read what one of our affiliate developer Nutiteq has done with In-App payments. In addition you can download Nutiteq Offline Maps from Android Market for free and see in real life how it works and how neat out In-App Payments solution is.

Getting lost in new locations is a daily dose of adventure for the traveler, whereas mobile maps are today’s solution to get back on track without extra stretch. Nutiteq, a developer of mobile mapping applications, can help Android owners’ who get into unfamiliar places with pre-dowloadable offline maps. What’s even better, users can purchase additional maps without any effort, as the system sends SMS automatically. It’s a solutions that leaves you without extra surprises in new locations and on your bill. Nutiteq wants to share their experience and give ideas to other application providers of how they can generate additional direct revenue from their popular applications and let them know about SMS-based in-application billing options. „So their applications will be better and better, instead of dying out,“ said Jaak Laineste from Nutiteq.

What is your service Offline Maps for Android about?

Offline Maps for Android is a mapping application for Android mobiles with one special feature: you can pre-download the maps to the device, so you do not need to use the data connection to download them over mobile network. Some other special features are also in the roadmap and will come with updates. Nutiteq is also planning to cover other phone platforms (e.g. Nokia and SonyEricsson phones).

Whom is it for?

This service is especially useful when you are travelling to other countries, where data roaming fees can be very expensive. Typical data roaming fee in Europe is about 5 EUR/MB, and it is not big art to create couple of megabytes data traffic when you are lost in a strange city.

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

It came from my own own needs: when I am travelling to other countries then I almost always turn off data roaming to avoid big surprises on phone bill later. Sometimes I need maps to find my location and directions, and built-in maps in mobile want to download all maps on-line. So, the solution was to create an application which provides you with maps without mobile data connection.

How is Fortumo involved to your service?

Nutiteq Offline Maps is using Fortumo In-App Payments for Android : users can purchase additional content (map packages). What I really like about the In-App Payments service is that users do not have to send any SMS themself – everything is done automatically, they only have to push OK. This seamless payment experience has so far rocketed my payment conversions.

Why did you decide to use In-App Mobile Payments?

As a developer and service provider, I needed to have some kind of monetization to cover costs of service creation and maintenance. Google enables theoretically to have paid app in Android Store, but it has two issues. The first is that Google does not support in-application payments for Android applications, and for this application, where most of added value comes by downloading additional map packages, In-App mobile payments is the most logical choice. The other issue is that Google supports only very few countries where developers can publish paid apps, and my country was not among them, so I just cannot publish any paid app in the Android Market. In-App Mobile Payments was kind of natural choice for me. Mobile Payments can be a bit more expensive than typical mobile app store billing infrastructure, but in many cases the default billing is not sufficient or just not available for you – in our case we have both issues.

What has In-App Mobile Payments additionally given you?

It provides some revenue, of course, and also we can now see how in-application payment system works in practise. This marketing knowledge is also valuable asset. Also we hope to get some traction, as in-application mobile payment solutions are quite new thing and there are very small number of applications using it. I suspect that many application providers just have to provide their apps for free, as Google does not provide suitable solution for them, and they are not aware of the in-app mobile payments options. Maybe I could help them to give one idea how they can generate some additional direct revenue from their popular applications, so the applications will be better and better, instead of dying out.

Fortumo In-App Payments for Android In Action

Martin Koppel — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:43:11 +0000

Have you seen Bollywood films? Me neither, but we have put together a really short video that shows how easy and fast it is to start monetizing with Fortumo In-App for Android.

In-App Payments for Android are here!

Rain Rannu — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:25:08 +0000

We’ve been working hard on this and now it’s ready: our in-app payments for Android.

As many of you know, in-app purchases are useful for developers who want to earn more money. 1-click mobile payments are incredibly easy to use and convert many times better than credit cards.

As some of you have noticed, there have been a couple of other announcements over the past weeks. How is Fortumo’s solution for in-app billing different from everyone else’s?

First, we are much easier to integrate. As with any other Fortumo serivice, you can configure it online in 5 minutes, download and integrate the Android billing library and go live! Some developers we have worked with say that the whole process does not take more than 15 minutes!

Second, ours is the only global in-app payment solution with instant activation. In most of our almost 40 countries, you are live instantly. In some countries, Fortumo reviews your service and activates it within 24 hours. In any case, we can provide you time-to-market speeds that none of our competitors will match.

And third, we are open to all developers, regardless of size and location. We do not ask for application forms nor grant limited private access to selected developers only. This makes us easily the most accessible mobile payments provider, suitable also for smaller and medium-sized app developers.

Check out Fortumo In-App Payments for Android

Give it a try and tell us what you think!

Play with Mobile, Pay by Mobile – sooo 2010!

Yichun Liu — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:21:38 +0000

Apple Apps Store has cultivated consumers’ in-app purchase habits. Yet being a single all-in system, Apple’s billing system allows mainly card payments which excluded the unbanked/underbanked. There are other payment options that enable different user bases. The good thing is, having built up consumers’ spending habits, Apple App Store helps make in-app/in-game purchases a norm among mobile and online players. By April 2010, there were 185,000+ apps available in App Store, and over 4 billion downloads. Players are used to in-app/in-game purchases, whether it’s in App Store, java games or social networks. Whichever payment channels are adopted by the providers, players choose the method that conveniences their fun-having.

Right payment method in the right marketplace

Contactless payments have penetrated into our consumer environment, if you haven’t noticed. NFC, WAP, credit cards and mobile payments are all part of this system. These payment methods have different scopes for different marketplaces. NFC has been widely adopted in mass transit in Asian countries like Japan and Taiwan. WAP is popular for music and ringtone downloads, among others. And mobile payment, by making the purchase charged in one’s phone bill, has become the most preferable payment channel for games, apps and webs.

Partnerships to mainstream the mobile trend

This phenomenon is reflected on the growing partnerships between mobile payment providers and SNS, gaming sites and mobile webs. Providers integrate this payment channel because of the multiplying revenues brought by the high payment conversion rate. Whereas players opt for paying by mobile due to its high accessibility, ease of use, full control and anonymity. The increasing partnerships among providers and the adoption rate of the players have consolidated the status of mobile payment in e-/m-Commerce.

Not just alternatives but the prime

According to the Mobile Banker from the American Banker, “as much as 20% of all credit/debit transactions could be mobile or an alternative by the year 2012.” Mobile payment has sprouted in the e-/m-Commerce industry. With the development of mobile handsets and smartphones, software developers are expanding their apps from PCs to mobile phones. They’re searching better ways to monetize apps without extra costs, and mobile payment provides this seamless possibility. If you’re playing games or apps with your mobile phone, what can be better to pay by the handset itself? If you’re building a fortress in your virtual kingdom and wishing to upgrade to the next level, what would be faster than buying through the click-and-done mobile payment?

Without additional costs, mobile payment allows providers to generate higher revenues, and grants players with real-time and full control of transaction. It has evolved to a mature payment technology, for providers and consumers alike.

Having all the benefits, FortuMoPay is right here for you to make the best out of it.

Modify your services and Add/Remove countries – Release Note 19th of May

Martin Koppel — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:44:36 +0000

We have been adding new countries every month, sometimes even several ones at the same time. Next countries in few weeks will be exotic Israel and Turkey. With such pace it has been bit tricky for you to keep up and add all the countries with ease. You had to create separated services for every new country and although it took you only 5 minutes it messed up your dashboard.

Well we have finally solved this issue. We have improved the services’ architecture so they could truly be dynamic multy-country services. You can now add and remove countries from your services with ease. And this is not everything. If you wish to modify pricing, keywords or virtual currency exchange rate for existing countries, you can do that, it’s not a problem. And yep, your dashboard will be always clean and shiny.

How does it work?
1. click on the service you wish to modify
2. click on EDIT tab
3. click on MODIFY button
4. and now: add/remove countries, change pricing, change keywords, change virtual currency exchange rate
5. go through the familiar wizard and you are ready to go

We hope you like this new power feature and it mask your life easier. Since we are planning to add new countries even faster.

SMS：1 Technology with 5 Dimensions

Yichun Liu — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:49:44 +0000

As mobile penetration increases over time, more and more people are accustomed to this form of communication – not just by phone but also via SMS. In addition to instant interaction, consumers use SMS for other purposes. It does more than text messaging. SMS is one technology with five dimensions. Let’s take a look at what SMS is capable of.

SMS as Communication – Say it!

SMS has its own charisma in terms of communication — it is expressive, rich in emotions, recordable, and sometimes, avoiding embarrassment. This is the absolute mainstream that dominates the SMS markets. Communication, being the basic form of SMS, has extended to other forms such as Chat-box. Placing an SMS-Chatbox on your webpage gives you an alternative to interact with your friends and visitors. It could serve as personal interaction, or as marketing and public relations – posting ads and announcements via SMS.

SMS as Entertainment – Enjoy it!

In addition to customised jokes and mind twisters, another common type of SMS-Entertainment is song requests. By sending an SMS to request a song, the consumer conveys his/her emotions with the audio aid. A song speaks more than a thousand words, doesn’t it? For those who read Chinese, here’s a model for you. A TV programme from Yunnan, China, which used our SMS service for song request.

SMS as Information – Spread it!

The fact that we like to be well informed is without doubt. SMS, sending and receiving via mobile handsets, is the medium that synchronizes us with the information desired. The common types of SMS-Information are horoscopes, news updates and daily quotes. For regional preferences, sports tips are popular in the Balkans whereas stock exchange info is in great demand in China.

SMS as Campaign – Do it and be part of it!

SMS-Campaign is one of the common practices of short message applications. It is mainly the cooperation with service providers and/or interactive media. Consumers send an SMS to participate in the campaign, be it trivia, text-and-win, voting or registering at an event. This kind of campaign often involves short-term and impulsive consumer behaviour. Whether it’s large-scale campaigns like voting for American Idol, or small ones like local TV show’s talent-search, they all cultivate a big revenue streams from the impulsive consumer expenditure.

SMS as Payment – Pay it and play it!

Payment tools are like transportation – transferring the monetary values from the payers to the payees. SMS as payment is the most efficient way of transferring money to content/service providers and selling virtual credits. The special features with SMS – anonymity, security, spontaneity and popularity – encourage consumer spending and thus raise the revenue streams. It lives up to the consumer demands for purchasing virtual credits in real-time without delay. From provider’s perspective, the convenient buying process of SMS/Mobile-payment converts much greater purchases, and thus generates higher revenues.

The multi-dimensions of SMS allow text message to achieve other functions such as mobile payment. The alternatives do not just stop here – a lot have already been developed, for example mobile parking, mobile ticketing, and mobile banking solution. And more are yet to come.

Whichever dimensions you are interested in, Fortumo provides the best solutions with our various service types and multiple country choices. With mobile payment alone, Fortumo has upgraded from Premium SMS-Connectivity to the all-in-one international payment solution FortuMoPay.

Start to ride on the mobile wave from here.

Fortumo in The Land of Zeus

Branimir Parashkevov — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:43:47 +0000

Summer is coming and Fortumo decided to take you on a trip to an exotic destination. Please, be most welcome in Greece – the newest member of the Fortumo Family!

The Hellenic Republic, or as most of us know it as Greece, is the heart of one of the eldest civilizations – the Ancient Greek civilization. Its reach was tremendous – from the southern parts of Italy to the west to the coastal lines of Turkey and Black sea to the east. From the Balkan Peninsula to the northern parts of Africa. Moreover, the Greeks’ influence over the world as we know it today is even more impressive. Greece is the motherland of philosophers like Plato and his student Aristotle; mathematicians like Pythagoras, Thales and Euclid and even the world-famous inventor and astronomer Archimedes (Eureka!). Additionally, this country on the shores of the Mediterranean sea is the place where you can go back in the ages and visit the famous Acropolis of Athens. It is believed to be built at least at the 7th century BC. Originally it was the most important Acropolis in whole Greece while today it is one of the most attractive tourists destinations. After this really brief history note, you can understand why the Greeks pride themselves on their origin.

Once playground of Zeus and the Gods of Olympus (the highest mountain in Greece), today Greece is a modern country with well developed IT sector and flourishing tourism. With total area of about 51,000 square miles and over 11 million population, Greece is the southernmost sea border of the European Union. The mobile penetration there is the highest through whole Europe – 180% (as of September 2009) and the internet penetration rate is 46%. Purely impressive! Add the fact that Greece ranked 26th in 2009 in the world by purchasing power parity GDP (according to the International Monetary Fund) and you will pretty much understand why Greece is your services’ next destination.

Just click here and we will show you how to go there!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

Mobile Industry: Growing or Growing Wild?

Yichun Liu — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:18:20 +0000

As Fortumo keeps expanding our coverage to different countries and continents, we’ve got users asking about the regional differences in various markets. The table below shows the mobile penetration rates in different regions with some fun notes. Overall, Europe is the fully saturated market, whereas Asia Pacific and North America are also mature markets looking up to break 100% penetration in the coming year. Africa and Latin America are comparatively smaller judging by the stats, and yet with the launch of African Information Society Initiative and the latter’s gradual privatization of telecom industry, these two markets are expected to have the most notable uplift in mobile penetration and telecom renovations.

It cannot be said enough: statistics are fluctuating, but the message behind is substantial. What’s the message this time? The prospects for each market are. just.promising.

	*COOL STATS*	*FUN NOTES*
Africa	Mobile penetration rate has risen from 15% in 2005, to 46% by the end of 2009, and is expected to reach over 75% of Africa’s population by 2015.	“We already missed Industrial Revolution, we cannot miss Information and Communication Technology Information.” (Courtesy to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa)
Asia Pacific	Mobile subscriptions are expected to reach 3.1 billion by year-end 2010. 1/3 of global mobile subscribers come from Asia.	Regional focus: Over half of the mobile subscribers in China accept mobile payment. Among them, the willingness to pay for stock exchange application is the highest.
Europe	Mobile penetration rate increased from 84% in 2004 to 119% in 2009, making Europe the most saturated market among others.	“Europe is the world’s first truly mobile continent with more mobile subscribers than Mcitizens (a take up rate of 119%)” (Courtesy to European Commission report on digital competitiveness 2010)
Latin America	A vast difference throughout the region. The average mobile penetration is above 78%, with Argentina, Jamaica, Uruguay and Venezuela breaking over 100%, and countries like Bolivia and Costa Rica approaching 50% threshold.	Most Latin American countries have been opening up telecom markets and privatization. While private investments have boosted the adoption of mobile phones, the landline phone penetration stagnated at a rate of 21%.
Middle East	The number of mobile subscribers rose from 53 millions in 2005 to 185 millions by the end of 2009. Mobile penetration is expected to reach 130% in Middle East by 2015.	Regional focus: United Arab Emirates tops in mobile penetration rate with an estimated 193% followed by Saudi Arabia at 165% by the end of 2010.
North America	By 2010 mobile penetration rate has reached 92.9% in the United States and 77.6% in Canada. Over 84 billion text messages are sent each month, over 1 trillion in 2009.	Mobile penetration rate in the U.S. has surpassed cable TV and PCs.

Regardless of the regional differences, all markets show long-term prospects. Mobile industry is not just growing — it is growing wild at an unprecedented speed, country-wise and revenue-wise. It’s up to you which market you want to enter. Fortumo is already present in 4 continents/37 countries, and more is yet to come.

I will not to squeeze in too much info for now. After all, you just heard about the launch of FortuMoPay yesterday – it takes some time to absorb the great news and try it yourself =)

Introducing FortuMoPay

Rain Rannu — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:15:31 +0000

It’s no secret that – partly thanks to mobile payments – more and more web-based businesses are profiting from the sale of virtual goods. Mobile payments in an online environment are growing faster than ever. Some experts believe that we are just in the beginning of this exciting journey.

In order to make the journey smoother for you, we’ve been working on a new service called FortuMoPay.

FortuMoPay is an international mobile payments service for selling credits in online games, web applications and social networks.

Let me walk you through how FortuMoPay works:

First, you let FortuMoPay know how much you want to charge for a “credit”, “virtual currency”, “silver coin” or whatever you want to call the good that you are selling. (Let’s say you have an online game and you want to sell 1 credit for 0.10 EUR.)

Then, FortuMoPay will automatically activate all available price points in all Fortumo countries. For example, in France, Fortumo can bill users 0.35 EUR, 0.5 EUR, 1.5 EUR and 3 EUR. Therefore, if the user chooses to pay 1.5 EUR, he would receive 15 credits. If he chooses to pay 3 EUR, he would receive 30 credits. The coolest thing is that it works out-of-the-box: you do not need to worry about short codes, keywords or conversion rates!

All you need to do is to set up a script on your server that communicates with Fortumo through HTTP protocol and embed your brand new FortuMoPay button to your site:

Clicking on the button will activate the end-user payment flow, handled by Fortumo. Click on the button (above) to try it!

We are happy to let you know that FortuMoPay is now officially available. Like all other Fortumo services, setting it up is quick, easy and free. Why not take your mobile payments experience to a next level and give FortuMoPay a try?

FortuMoPay is available here.

4 Ways How Mobile Payment Beats Credit Cards

Yichun Liu — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:41:39 +0000

Surveys show that incremental revenues are much more affected by payment conversion rates than by transaction costs. Mobile payment, with its advantages, completes purchases over 67%. Most of such reports present the statistical results. Yet numbers are a fluctuating reference. For a service provider and a marketer, it is crucial to understand not just the effects but the market factors in order to make the business substantial.

Based on our user experiences, here are the four causes that drive people to adopt mobile payment.

It’s EVERYWHERE Mobile phones have worldwide reach and are always within our reach. From the research of Bank of Finland, it shows that the US mobile penetration has passed 91%, with 234 million mobile phone users compared to 176 million credit/debit card holders. It has fundamentally become the can’t-do-without tool that one carries. The accessibility is always the first factor to take into consideration and consumers opt for what’s within their reach at all times.

It’s SECURE Mobile payment allows you to have full control of every single transaction. To ensure the message is coming from you, the purchase is identified remotely using some identifiers like entering the code from the reply message. No more worries on being spied by viruses or Trojan horses that memorize your ID codes and make fabricated payments without you noticing it. With the commands and data input fully under your control, you are guaranteed with total payment security.

It’s ANONYMOUS Mobile payment ensures you a high level of privacy for personal data and preference. We all know that card payment takes your personal information and sends you the bill with product/service names and transaction details. Contrary to that, the only info that mobile payment requires is your phone number. It is anonymous and gives you the privacy of purchasing things that you’d prefer to keep a low profile;)

It’s IMPULSIVE Mobile payment is perfect for impulsive buyers. We buy what we need and what we want. Wanting something doesn’t necessarily equal to in need of it. The complicated card payment process encourages re-thinking whether the product is needed, and more often than not, leads to the withdrawal of the purchase. On the other hand, thanks to the small amount involved in each mobile transaction and the simple buying process, buyers complete the payment instantly without hesitation.

Simple enough: the four causes that consolidate the whole cycle of mobile payment ecosystem. And it only gets better.

Any thoughts on mobile payment? What would you like to know more about it? Speak up and leave us your feedback. As always, Fortumo meets your requests : )