Get the latest announcements from MEF Members across the mobile ecosystem globally in this weekly review of member news…
TPAY releases a white paper on how Direct Carrier Billing can help merchants and operators grow their revenues
UAE, November 23, 2023: TPAY, the leader in payments in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey (META), has released a white paper explaining how direct carrier billing can scale up digital service providers’ revenues, and significantly improve financial inclusion in the region.
“DCB is mainly used for online purchases of digital content, however, its biggest potential goes beyond digital content into the vast realm of physical goods.” said Işık Uman, the CEO of TPAY Mobile. “This white paper provides a thorough analysis of the direct carrier billing market with its trends, opportunities, and potentials, as well as challenges and risks posed for merchants and telecom operators.”
“TPAY is bridging the gap by removing the complexity and enabling merchants to grow further in Turkey & MEA. We simplify the technical, contractual, and commercial conditions so that merchants can focus on their business and promote their products and services while we take care of the checkout process and financial flows,” says Işık Uman, the CEO of TPAY Mobile.
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International Travel to Exceed Pre-Pandemic Levels in 2024, Despite slower Chinese Rebound
London, December 12th, 2023: New findings from Kaleido Intelligence predicts that international travel trips will exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2024, marking a 3% increase from 2019 and surpassing 2 billion for the second time ever. Outbound travel recovery from China has been slow in 2023 and is expected to take another 12-18 months to return to pre-pandemic levels. Kaleido expects China to drive growth in 2024, with Asia-Pacific markets leading outbound (39%) and inbound (69%) y-o-y increase.
Meanwhile, France, the host nation of the 2024 Olympic Games, will drive inbound arrivals and will account for around 11% of all 2024 international inbound trips.
The new research, International Travel Trends & Forecasts 2024, found that there will be continued international growth, leading to 2.8 billion trips by the end of 2028. Kaleido foresees robust growth in emerging and established travel markets over the next 5 years, boosted by major sporting events in North America and Latin America in 2026.
Dawnn Dinsey, Research Analyst at Kaleido Intelligence said: “According to Kaleido’s estimates, inbound arrivals to Israel are expected to rise by 22% in 2023 compared to 2020, followed by a predicted sharp decline of over 40% in 2024. Ongoing travel cancellations to neighbouring countries will further hinder travel growth for the entire Middle East region.”
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netnumber and WMC Global Partner to Deliver Industry-First Mobile Communications Fraud Prevention Solutions
BOSTON and FAIRFAX, Va. — December 14, 2023 — netnumber, the world-leading provider of phone number intelligence data, and WMC Global, a 17-year pioneer in mobile threat intel, today announce they have joined forces in a strategic partnership. This first-of-its-kind partnership combines netnumber’s real-time and intelligent communications verification tools with WMC Global’s comprehensive mobile threat intelligence platform. This alliance creates a unique ability to combat sophisticated financial fraud attempts by correlating critical threat validation data, reducing vulnerabilities from existing data decentralization across the global mobile communications ecosystem.
“Fraud is a hot-button issue within the financial services landscape, and we’re committed to empowering the organizations in this global ecosystem with more tools, knowledge and support to combat it. Our real-time and extensive data-based solutions, paired with our team’s expansive experience building and securing trust across global routing and provisioning use cases, enabled us to solve a variety of complex challenges within the mobile communications sphere. Now, we’re excited to take our efforts to the next level to meet evolving demands,” comments Steve Legge, President and CEO of netnumber. “The current disconnected state of fraud prevention data is what led us to form this strategic partnership, and we know that with WMC Global, we can more effectively thwart and control fraud with new and innovative strategies.”
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Omdia ranks Infobip a Leader in the CPaaS Universe report for second year
Vodnjan, Croatia, December 12, 2023 – Global cloud communications platform Infobip has been named a Leader in the CPaaS market by tech research group Omdia for the second year. Omdia has again named Infobip a leader in its latest Omdia Universe: CPaaS Platform Providers 2023-24 after its inclusion as a leader in last year’s report.
Pamela Clark-Dickson, Principal Analyst at Omdia, said: “Our scores indicate that Infobip is a consistently high performer in terms of the services it delivers, how it delivers them, and its ability to effectively iterate its platform in line with prevailing market trends and evolving technology.
“The size and reach of Infobip’s communications network and its global presence positions the firm well to offer CPaaS and adjacent offerings to large enterprises and multinationals globally. These qualities also provide the foundation for Infobip to penetrate the potentially lucrative market segments of platforms and hyper scalers with its co-creation offering, CPaaS X.”
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Telenor concludes strategic review in Pakistan with sale of Telenor Pakistan to PTCL
Oslo, Islamabad, Singapore, 14 Dec 2023: Telenor Group today announces the sale of its Pakistan telco operations to Pakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd (“PTCL”), which is part of technology and investment group e&. PTCL’s major assets include Ufone, a mobile operator in Pakistan with 25 million customers.
The sale is part of Telenor’s strategy to build scale and market-leading players in Asia, as presented at the 2022 Capital Markets Day. It concludes the strategic review of the telco operations in Pakistan, which was announced in July 2022.
Sigve Brekke, CEO, Telenor Group commented: “Our decision to pursue the sale of our Pakistan operations follows 18 successful years of operations in the country, which started as a greenfield rollout. We are proud of the company Telenor Pakistan is today. It is an efficient and future-ready telco operator, with a strong distribution network and talented team serving 45 million customers. By selling to the country’s largest integrated ICT company, we believe this consolidation move would help strengthen Pakistan’s telecoms sector, creating opportunities in new areas of growth to the benefit of consumers in Pakistan.”
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Zeotap CDP Introduces Non-Customer Entity Data to Expand the horizon beyond customer data
Berlin, December 19, 2023 – Zeotap CDP, the easy, secure, and impactful Customer Data Platform, is thrilled to introduce its “Non-Customer Entity Data” feature. This innovative tool marks a significant leap in the realm of customer data platforms (CDPs), enabling businesses to integrate and activate both customer and non-customer entity data with unprecedented ease.
The Non-Customer Entity Data feature is a transformative approach that broadens the scope of data integration beyond traditional customer-centric identifiers. It encompasses transactional data, account information and product catalogue details, providing a more holistic view of the customer. This comprehensive understanding is crucial for developing effective marketing strategies.
“At Zeotap, we recognise that understanding your customers goes beyond just customer-related data. In line with our mission to make customer data impactful, we’re excited to unveil our new feature: ‘NCE’, which stands for Non Customer Entities. This innovative feature significantly boosts marketers’ data-driven capabilities, offering a radical expansion in insights about their customers” said Sathish KS, Chief Technology Officer of Zeotap.
With this innovation, Zeotap is poised to redefine the landscape of customer data platforms, offering unprecedented insights and capabilities to businesses across the globe.