With new streaming and subscription services hitting the market seemingly every week, consumers are becoming disillusioned with the ‘subscription economy’ – posing a threat to some of the world’s biggest brands. Let the streaming wars die – it’s time to put the subscriber first for once.
But fear not. The bundle packages are here to save us. In Australia, one superbundle platform has already taken shape in the form of Optus Subhub. This all-in-one platform already brings together everything from Netflix to Prime, from Paramount to Calm, and even Kindle. In the USA, Verizon’s +Play is unlocking a similar subscriber-centric approach.
The key to this is new technology, which is making it easier to build and offer an all-in-one subscription service. With Bango Resale, what we call our “digital vending machine” for subscriptions, anyone looking to offer a bundle or a subscription deal can plug it into the Bango digital vending machine, stock it with the subscription offers and deals they want to provide, and then customers can pick the very best combinations for them.
Focus on distribution partnerships to rethink the subscription economy. Collaborate with network providers and the big telco brands. There doesn’t need to be a battle over who spends the most marketing dollars to own a bigger share of the market.
We are proud to submit our entry on the Power of USSD in Solving Challenges for Ifakara Research Institutions. Beem has been instrumental in helping Ifakara Research Institution overcome significant challenges, including limited internet access, remote rural locations, language barriers, and limited dedicated devices and manpower.
Recently, we worked with Ifakara Research Institution on a project to collect data on how many citizens in Tanzania have received and perceived COVID-19 testing. This research was targeting 10,000 people in a remote rural area. The institution faced multiple challenges, including limited internet access, language barriers, and the need for a cost-effective solution.USSD was the solution to these challenges. By leveraging its ability to operate without the need for an internet connection or dedicated devices, we were able to reach remote rural villages and engage with a diverse audience, regardless of language barriers. The use of USSD allowed us to deliver the project under budget and effectively communicate with participants to ensure the successful completion of the testing.
Our experience in utilizing USSD to solve these challenges and successfully deliver this important COVID-19 research project makes us a deserving candidate for this award.
Clickatell Chat 2 Pay - Future of Digital Commerce
Clickatell’s Chat 2 Pay is a digital payment enabler – creating a new channel for businesses to request payments. Chat 2 Pay makes it possible for brands to improve their customer service and to extend their digital commerce offering by providing an effortless, convenient, and secure way to make payments in chat channels.
Chat 2 Pay takes Clickatell’s decades of developing Chat Commerce solutions for global customers and delivers a simple and comprehensive way for merchants to offer payments and transactions to consumers in mobile messaging. Chat 2 Pay enables merchants to securely accept payments in mobile messaging by sending consumers a payment link via SMS or WhatsApp. In its design of Chat 2 Pay, Clickatell efficiently has orchestrated the complex relationship between mobile messaging, payments, or the order management system (OMS) of their customers, and in the process mitigates the risk of merchants managing payment card details.
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With Chat 2 Pay businesses can now offer the ability for customers to pay for pretty much any products and/or services by sending a payment link via a mobile message. There are a lot of payment solutions and products on the market and the big differentiator of Chat 2 Pay is Clickatell orchestrates the process between the mobile messaging channel, the payment gateway, and the OMS. It’s a very easy functionality for a merchant to “switch on” and manage. The product is ready to use, quick, easy, and convenient for businesses.
Chat 2 Pay:
• Enables a new payment acceptance method, through chat messaging.
• Streamlines the checkout experience with a trusted, convenient way to pay, also through mobile messaging.
• Reduces the cost to business
• Shorter call duration and volume by deflecting to chat channel
• Drives adoption of chat as a lower-cost, more efficient channel for future interactions
• Reduces cart abandonment, by delivering intuitive, secure, contact-free checkoutClickatell’s client, FlySafair, South Africa’s leading low-cost airline, uses Clickatell’s Chat Commerce Platform making it possible for FlySafair to provide customers the means to find helpful information, connect with a customer service agent, and make a purchase by simply sending “Hi” on WhatsApp to FlySafair’s dedicated WhatsApp number +27 87 357 0030. Customers can also choose to receive their boarding pass on WhatsApp, significantly improving and streamlining the passenger experience. FlySafair makes full use of the Clickatell platform and its applications.
FlySafair just launched Chat 2 Pay providing passengers today faster, secure, and more convenient mobile payments to the airline via FlySafair’s WhatsApp channel. Passengers can now make purchases and payments, such as luggage fees, in advance, and avoid standing in lines at the airport to make the purchase.
The service enables Card customers to create a virtual card on their mobile phone for their physical Visa or Mastercard SBI credit card. The customers can then simply tap their mobile phone on a Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled point of sale (POS) terminal to make payments. SBI Card Pay and ICICI imobile Pay leverage Host Card Emulation (HCE) technology and Tokenization to deliver swift, seamless, secure, and convenient contactless mobile payments to customers.
SBI Card Pay service is powered by Comviva’s mobiquity® Banking Suite which offers the HCE and Tokenization technology.
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Over the last few years, the product has been expanded to be certified to support MasterCard tokenization (MDES) in addition to Visa tokenization (VTS) service.
- Received TR-TSP by Visa in June 2017 (click here for details) and I-TSP certification in August 2020 (click here for details).
- Comviva was listed on Mastercard Engage Directory for Digital Wallets as a qualified vendor in providing Tokenization solution.
Innovation of the product/service:
The ‘3S’ strategy to success: Swift, Secure and Seamless:
1. Swift
1.1 Quick one-time registration for first-time users: Customers with an Android smartphone have to register their Visa or Mastercard SBI credit card on SBI Card mobile application.
1.2 Fast payments: This ‘Tap and Pay’ service has proved to be 40% to 50% faster than Chip and PIN service.
2. Secure:
2.1 Tokenization: the service uses Tokenization that converts customer’s sensitive card information into a device-specific digital token. While executing transaction, digital token is shared and customer’s actual card information is never masked.
2.2 Transaction limit: The service adheres to govt prescribed transaction limits for contactless transactions of INR 5,000 for single and INR 20,000 for per-day transactions.
3. Seamless:
3.1 One holistic unified app: While many banks have built separate app for contactless payment, SBI Card has just one app for managing credit card account as well as making payments.
3.2 Customizable transaction limits: SBI Card Pay service customers are free to set their own desired sub-limits on per-transaction and daily-transactions level.
3.3 Service continuity in lost phone scenario: In case the customer’s mobile device is misplaced and the digital token has been blocked, they can still use physical card
3.4 Hygienic: SBI Card Pay ‘Tap & Pay’ service is completely contactless, hence a hygienic service which has become very crucial in times of COVID pandemic
Technology & how it was used to enhance the product/service:
SBI Card Pay Service is powered by Comviva’s mobiquity® Banking Suite which provides swift and secure ‘Tap & Pay’ contactless payment experience to the customers at NFC POS machines, by leveraging HCE technology and Tokenization.
HCE technology enables the customer to create a digital version of the credit or debit card in their mobile phone and tap the mobile phone at NFC POS machines, thus making contactless card payments at merchants, also eliminating the requirement of a physical card.
USPs of mobiquity® Banking Suite:
- Trusted: Comviva is a Visa certified TSP for both TR-TSP (Token Requestor Token Service Provider) (click here for details) and I-TSP (Issuer Token Service Provider) (click here for details). Comviva is also listed on Mastercard Engage Directory for Digital Wallets as a qualified vendor in providing Tokenization solution.
- Faster time to market: Comviva’s single integration platform for multiple devices across the SDK, as well as for server components, allows for single integration to support all TSPs (Visa, Mastercard and any others), thus ensuring lesser time is spent on integrations, enabling bank and card issuers to quickly launch the ‘Tap & Pay’ service.
- Flexible: mobiquity® Banking Suite provides choice of using the existing mobile banking application or create a new application to launch ‘Tap & Pay’ contactless payment.
- Secure: Provides secure SDK with Whitebox crypto, class and method encryption, enterprise grade obfuscation.
Results of the service – ROI, number of users, objectives achieved etc.:
- SBI Card Pay service was used by 41,134 customers in just 5 months since launch
- Used by over 102,000 customers in just a year
- Since adopting the contactless payments service, the number of active cards in SBI Cards has grown by over 88%
- SBI Card Pay contactless payments service has come handy for consumers in time COVID-19 and helps them to maintain social distancing by reducing the transmission risk through contactless card payments.
- The product went live for the second largest credit card provider in India, SBI Cards, with a base of over 14 million cards In addition, the product was also adopted by the third largest credit card provider in India, with ~10 million active credit cards and around 45 million debit cards (ICICI pockets and immobile Pay)
- This ‘Tap and Pay’ service has proved to be 40% to 50% faster than Chip and PIN service, and benefits in queue busting especially at busy malls, quick service restaurants and drive through. Research from American Express says contactless-payments are 63% faster than cash and 53% faster than conventional card-payments.
- Recognizing these challenges, governments have also introduced regulations that facilitate contactless card payments. RBI relaxed two-factor authentication regulation further for contactless micro-transactions less than INR 5000 (compared to earlier INR 2000)
Making the most of mobile payment with Carrier Billing strategies
In 2022, Digital Virgo’s goal has remained to implement powerful monetization ecosystems for telcos and merchants by addressing mobile payment in its entirety.
This global approach aims to make payment accessible to everyone in the most seamless way possible, always seeking to create more value and revenue for our customers. To succeed in this mission, we offer them a range of value-added services and tools to make the most of carrier billing in a complex and evolving market.
We believe we deserve this recognition for our constant effort to address our customers’ glocal (global and local) challenges and provide them with an innovative and secure mobile payment ecosystem.
Over the past 12 months, Evina cybersecurity technology has blocked more than $1.5 billion worth of fraudulent transactions on carrier billing – a rate comparable to that of Apple’s for its App Store. Evina’s on track to making mobile payments safe for users and maximizing profitability for all industry players, starting with getting telecom operators to realize their potential in the fintech space by protecting their payment services.
In 2022, Evina officialized its Evina DCB 360 suite of cybersecurity solutions, consisting of its award-winning flagship solution DCBprotect which blocks hacking attempts on carrier billing perpetrated by malware, and four additional solutions designed to target all specific technical aspects of carrier billing protection.
CredBraine
Finbraine is an agile, customer-centric fintech building predictive algorithms and decision models using advanced AI and ML to power next-gen digital KYC and Lending solutions. We are powered by two service companies with huge global networks and unparalleled expertise in providing new-age Telecom and Fintech solutions with a turnover of USD 40+ million and 10+ million respectively.
FinBraine’s CredBraine is the next-gen digital lending platform that provides end-to-end lending lifecycle support to launch microlending, digital line of credit, BNPL, and other lending programs to financial institutions. CredBraine comes with features like AI/ML-based onboarding journeys with E-KYC, AI/ML and rule-based risk assessment and scoring features, a loan management system and others.
FinBraine’s IDBraine is a powerful E-KYC solution that makes customer onboarding and identity verification easy, secure and smart. A risk-based solution that ensures a perfect balance of convenience and security, without compromising on identity verification requirements. IDBraine offers features like Instant Data Extraction from documents, Instant Validation and Verification through centralized databases, Impersonation Fraud Prevention through AI/ML and others.
Conversational top-up: Combining chat apps, chatbots, payment solutions into one seamless top-up experience for prepaid customers
In today’s competitive environment, customers expect telecoms to be as fast as digital native companies – with superior customer support, and easy to use digital self-service options.
Telecoms are continually looking for ways to digitize entire customer journeys and release unnecessary pressure on contact centers, leaving agents to solve more complex issues.
Additionally, many telecoms have launched their own mobile payment solutions which allow their customers to perform simple financial transactions, like send money, pay for goods and services using their mobile phone over an account linked to their mobile number.
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Combining all three of the above trends, Infobip worked with telecoms, initially in Africa and APAC, to co-create a new & simple prepaid mobile top-up solution, where mobile customers can complete their entire top-up within their chat app of choice (e.g. WhatsApp). With easy QR code scan options to start, and by integrating credit cards and telco-owned mobile payment solutions, all actions are performed without a mobile customer needing to leave the chat app during their self-service journey, including payment and contextual support via chatbot automated communication. Infobip has implemented chatbots in telecoms globally that handle up to 90% of customer queries, without any input required from a human agent.
With many telecoms exploring diversification through fintech business, plus the rise in “conversational everything”; digital interactions between customers and brands, Infobip has found a way to co-create with telecoms solution that is usable (in-app payment in chat app over chatbot), secured (using mobile payments solutions of established telco brands) and ensures CX remains in focus.
Viber Pay
Rakuten Viber Pay is the latest innovation from Rakuten Viber, allowing users to send and receive money in Viber as easily as they send a message.
Focussed on providing a seamless and fast user experience, new Viber Pay wallets can be created in less than 2 minutes. Additionally, all payments are encrypted and secured with licensed partners and, unlike competitor banking apps, can be made at zero cost to the user.
MEFFYS 2023
Payments
Voting ended! The winners will be announced at the MEFFYS Ceremory in Barcelona, 27th February
The MEFFYS 2023 @ MWC Barcelona
The 18th Annual MEFFYS Awards will be held in Barcelona with the winners of 7 categories announced LIVE on the night. The glitz, the glamour, the red carpet – it is once again time to scrutinise the latest ideas and trends across the mobile ecosystem.
