Indonesia’s leading digital publisher Tempo and Fortumo on Tuesday launched a direct carrier billing (DCB) partnership.
Mobile subscribers of Telkomsel, Indosat Ooredoo, XL Axiata, 3 and Smartfren can now subscribe to Tempo’s digital publications by easily charging the payments to their phone bill.
Tempo offers any prepaid and postpaid mobile user the option to upgrade their reading experience by subscribing to its Silver, Gold and Platinum packages ranging from IDR 9,900 ($0.6) to IDR 15,900 ($1) per week. The purchase with carrier billing can be made through Tempo’s website.
Tempo launched carrier billing through Fortumo’s Hosted DCB. Hosted DCB connects Tempo with the local mobile operators’ carrier billing platforms while Fortumo manages the checkout flows and localization. This allowed Tempo to launch carrier billing with minimal development effort, as one integration enables payment capabilities with all mobile operators in the country.
In addition to Hosted DCB, Tempo utilizes Fortumo’s Subscription Engine, which provides end-to-end user lifecycle management for recurring payments. The Subscription Engine manages subscription activations, renewals and terminations on behalf of the merchant. The solution lets merchants easily launch marketing promotions (such as discounts and free trials) while reducing subscriber churn through built-in grace period and failed payment retry mechanisms.
Prathita S Putra, Head of Digital Business, Tempo Media Group
Therefore, the use of carrier billing is ultimately aimed at making it easier for readers to get exclusive and quality news from Tempo. Carrier billing also allows readers to subscribe for shorter periods, e.g. every week.
Andrea Boetti, VP of Global Business Development, Fortumo
A simple checkout process is critical for digital content providers to increase their payment conversion rates and as a result, their paying user base and revenue.
