Chris Silberberg, Programme Manager for the upcoming Global Carrier Billing Summit, shares takeaways from their recent survey examining the state of the Carrier Billing industry in 2020.
For this year’s Global Carrier Billing Summit we are bringing you our Global Carrier Billing Survey, with support from our valued partners the Association for Interactive Media and Micropayments (AIMM), the Mobile Eco-system Forum (MEF) and our research partner Omdia ahead of October’s virtual Global Carrier Billing Summit. The results will be used to inform and engage the audience on what’s happening in the Carrier Billing industry in 2020. It is open to all stakeholders who use, provide, or watch the carrier billing industry. Not filled out the survey yet? You can do so here – it takes less than 10 minutes!
The Story so far: Covid-19 small to positive impact on the Carrier Billing industry so far
Though the world has been reeling from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic most of our respondents recorded imperceptible, or marginally positive impact on their business. Most still have the same priorities as they did before the pandemic, though recognize the fresh demand for cashless payments and the continued focus on video streaming opportunities which were in high demand by consumers spending long months in lockdown. As lockdowns ease we can expect the uptake of some of these services to slow again, however, the long term effects will be to accelerate customers turn to consume services digitally.
The most popular segments for our respondents to be involved in so far for digital goods and services are video games, online portals, digital music services, and dating services. Video games in particular is a carrier billing segment we are watching closely this year – not only as according to Omdia in 2019 gaming accounted for 52% of carrier billed goods and services revenues – but because with the advent of cloud gaming, and interest in e-sports growing across the world there are growing number of providers looking to have carrier billing as an additional payment option.
That said carriers still need to do more to make it worthwhile for new merchants to get involved. One complaint raised several times in our survey was that carriers are demanding higher fees than its worth for merchants to use carrier billing. How great a concern and barrier this is for merchants looking to engage in carrier billing should be readily apparent by the criticisms that have been widely levelled at Apple and other platform providers in recent months on the fees they charge app developers publishing on their app store.
These are just some preliminary finding s from the survey so far, we will be publishing further results at the event itself, available for all attendees.
We hope to see you at this year’s online Global Carrier Billing Summit, if you would like to attend you can purchase your pass here – Network Carriers and Merchants can apply for a free pass! If you want to see a more detailed view of our topics and speakers, you can do so on our online agenda, including presentations, panel sessions, and our networking roundtables where you can debate your views on carrier billing with your peers from around the globe.
Any comments on the results so far, or questions about the event? Feel free to get in contact with me directly at chris.silberberg@informa.com – I look forward to e-meeting you!
