Viettel, the largest mobile operator in Vietnam, has partnered with mobile payments company Fortumo to bring direct carrier billing for Viettel subscribers. More than 55 million Vietnamese will soon be able to purchase digital content online by charging payments to their mobile phone bill.
As a result of the partnership, Fortumo will provide its billing platform to Viettel to enable the launch of carrier billing on major app stores as well as for many top Asian digital content merchants including Box TV, Ditto TV, Gaana, UCWeb/Alibaba, Mobogenie, Octro and Games2Win.
According to the World Bank, credit card penetration in Vietnam is below 2% and debit card penetration stands at 27%. This means that only a quarter of the 36 million smartphone owners in the country currently have access to online payments. The direct carrier billing partnership between Viettel and Fortumo aims to bridge this gap by enabling anyone with a mobile phone to pay for services or goods online.
Gerri Kodres, Chief Business Officer at Fortumo
Mobile operators get the best value out of their billing platform if they enable payments for app stores but also for video and music streaming providers, game developers and other digital merchants.
