AIME’s first annual conference and the inaugural Payforit Summit was held last week at the British Academy building in Central London, a highly anticipated event as tickets sold out in the weeks leading up to the Summit.
The Summit was designed to educate new sectors on the Payforit opportunity and how they can utilize charge-to-mobile into their mobile and online monetization strategy, as well as bring together existing Industry players to reflect and discuss the journey Payforit has been on to arrive as the billing mechanic it is today.
Drawing together expertise from leading companies such as Oxygen8, ImpulsePay, Boku, Mach, GlobalCharge and the UK MNOs Vodafone, O2, EE and Three, the Summit highlighted the opportunities for new sectors such as publishing and mobile gaming/gambling.
In his opening remarks to over 120 delegates in the morning session, Tim Green, editor of Mobile Money Revolution, highlighted that mobile payments globally will top $235bn this year, with pay-by-mobile expected to give access to 4 billion phone users globally vs only 1.5 billion payment card owners.
Operator billing therefore offers up an unique opportunity for content owners to target an unbanked demographic, but, as Tim pointed out in his presentation, within the Banked demographic, it comes up against a range of innovative mobile payment technologies such as Chirpify’s pay-by-twitter service or Mybank’s direct-from- bank-account mechanic.
So who stands to gain the most from using Payforit operator billing? Brands can certainly expand their app store experience by using Payforit, as Andy Bovingdon, VP of product marketing at Bango explained in his presentation. Bango has experienced 300% uplift in sales using operator billing on a major app store; so it is clear that mobile billing should be an essential part of any brands content strategy due to it’s convenience and practicality delivering an excellent payment experience to consumers.
More highlights from the morning session included Anne Caffrey, senior Manager mCommerce at Vodafone, who analysed the state of the mCommerce nation. Anne explained to the packed room how in a world of disruptive mCommerce technologies, we need to go back to basics and focus on customer behaviour and perceived value when it comes to mCommerce and mobile payments. By uncovering current habits, finding out what is familiar with consumers, defining your value proposition and how technology can support this, you’ll be well on your way to creating a successful e-commerce proposition.
Once the morning session was bought to a close, attendees were given their first chance to network with speakers and other delegates in the highly praised music room of the British Academy. Kicking off the afternoon sessions, attendees were given two work streams to choose from, with one stream focussing on Payforit beginners and the other helping attendees understand how they can grow their business with Payforit.
In stream 1, speakers included Aideen Short, expert mobile gaming consultant, James Harrison, UK country manager of Oxygen8 and Bernadette Lyons, CEO of GlobalCharge, who all approached topics aimed at introducing Payforit to delegates and helping them map out how charge-to-mobile will add value and a innovative payment experience to their content businesses.
James Harrison spoke of the growing operator billing opportunity, with a market of approximately 52 million mobile phone users to be tapped in the UK – but also highlighted that merchants shouldn’t be worried by consumer concerns around mobile payments (especially around security and fraud), as Payforit provides clear pricing with no need to provide bank details, as well as holding no risk of additional purchases being added to your bill or details being passed to other companies.
Over in Stream 2, speakers included Micheal Bradford of Mach, Gavin Dent of Empello and Emma Wright of Bond Dickinson, with topics approaching In-app billing, customer service best practise and the growth of affiliate marketing.
Mark Collins, Head of Regulatory Development at PhonepayPlus spoke insightfully on the regulatory developments for Payforit, speaking on how Payforit can help merchants stay on the right side of regulation, with useful information provided on prior permissions, regulation of services and how any complaints should be handled.
Michael Bradford, in one of the most anticipated presentations of the Summit, revealed to Stream 2 the first glimpses of feedback from the recently launched Payforit In-app trials, giving the attendees a first look at what to expect when the low friction Payforit experience is blended into the app environment. With examples of portable gaming revenues increasing 51% when utilising In-app purchases, Bradford explained it was unsurprising to see brands such as King.com reduce their dependence on advertising revenues by adopting in-app billing as their primary revenue driver.
Closing the Summit at the conclusion of both streams, AIME Chairman Edward Boddington thanked all attendees for participating in one of AIME’s most successful events to date, of course in no small part down to the fantastic support from all the event sponsors and organisers, not forgetting the excellent venue and its staff. We were pleased to announce Chris Cole as the winner of the AIME champagne prize draw, with IMImobile drawing David Ashman of AIME as the winner of their prize draw.
Presentations from the Summit will be made available via the AIME website shortly (subject to Speaker approval), with details on how to access the presentations being sent out to attendees once they are live.
For any questions relating to the Payforit Summit or AIME’s work in general, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via the AIME exec. Contact Us.
