Another big contract for mobile payments and analytics company Bango. The company that already has Facebook, BlackBerry App World, Windows Phone Store and Amazon as customers announced it has signed a global framework agreement with Telefónica Digital.
The partnership aims to create “an enhanced direct-to-bill payment experience for mobile app stores,” by combining Bango’s frictionless payment experience with Telefónica’s BlueVia Payment APIs, connecting over 314 million chargeable customers worldwide to the Bango Payments Platform.
Bango and Telefónica Digital noted the partnership aims to accelerate the availability of a standardized and open payment platform for all app stores and content providers and to improve the customer experience.
Companies explained that the integration of the single BlueVia billing API into the Bango Payments Platform app stores is expected to benefit from Bango’s user experience for mobile devices, once more than half of smartphones browsing app stores use Wi-Fi connections.
Bango CEO Ray Anderson noted the companies want to widen access to paid content by standardizing and simplifying operator-billed mobile payments. He recognized BlueVia as a valuable and bold initiative by Telefonica to establish a unified set of billing APIs.
Bango will standardize on BlueVia to connect with Telefónica’s 314 million subscribers around the world.
Telefónica Digital’s head of BlueVia, Jose Valles, added that both Bango and BlueVia share the vision that mobile payments must be seamless and low friction for the customer.
In a statement, the companies highlighted the opportunity for digital goods and services via a mobile phone bill or prepay credit, especially in developing markets, such as Latin America, where the penetration of bank accounts and credit cards is very low.
