Pakistan’s Spellflix has selected Fortumo to provide carrier billing for its movie streaming service.
Consumers in Pakistan can now watch movies, music and TV shows by charging payments to their mobile phone bill. Pakistan is the first market where Spellflix has launched carrier billing, where more than 64 million subscribers of Telenor and Zong can now access the digital content without the need for a credit card.
“Spellflix strives to provide its customers with the best digital entertainment experience out there by offering latest and blockbuster Hollywood films which no other streaming service offers in the country. One part of this is localising payment methods so the largest amount of people can pay for access to our movies with a payment method that is familiar to them,” said CEO, Spell Movies LLC, Saqib Rathore.
“The growth of streaming services in Western markets is slowing down while the mobile population growth in countries like Pakistan is accelerating. Digital merchants who want to sustain growth need to focus on these markets, but user monetisation is essentially impossible when using traditional, bank-based payment methods. We are very happy to work with Spellflix in providing their subscribers a local payment method that is accessible to everyone,” said Gerri Kodres, Chief Business Office at Fortumo.
In Pakistan, only 0.1% of people own a credit card while smartphone penetration is already above 30%. This means more than 44 million smartphone owners can access online content but are unable to pay for it through traditional payment channels. Carrier billing solves this problem by allowing any mobile phone user to charge payments to their mobile account, regardless of whether they are a prepaid SIM card user or have a contract with their mobile operator. Additional information on the mobile ecosystem of Pakistan can be found from Fortumo’s Asia market report.
To collect payments from users without bank cards, Spellflix integrated Fortumo’s Cross-Platform Mobile Payments onto their streaming platform. This allows Spellflix to reach users across Pakistan through Zong and Telenor with one integration. At the same time, Fortumo manages the full compliance (local legislation) and provides a platform-adaptive solution which increases payment conversion and revenue.