Posts tagged Micropayments
European Internet Users Have a Strong Preference for Micropayment
Mar 31st
According to “The DIBS E-Commerce Survey 2010”* conducted by YouGov Zapera, nearly one quarter of European internet users prefer Micropayment services over any other means of payment. The breakdown of online consumers by major market is below:
• 26% in Germany,
• 23% in the UK,
• 22% in Spain,
• 19% in France (who prefer to pay online using micropayment services).
This trend is in line with the Hi-media Micropayment Observatory, conducted by Harris Interactive in August 2010, on the use of micropayment in Europe and the United States. This study also revealed that micropayments are now integrated into the regular habits of most internet users due to the fact that:
• The micropayment is used by an average of 40% of Internet users, whether European or American;
• The micropayment is much appreciated by users and enjoys a particularly positive image amongst those users.
Please click on the following link to download the complete results from “The Hi-media Micropayment Observatory 2010”: http://bit.ly/dUagqh
* About the Dibs’s survey: the survey was conducted in the third quarter of 2010 by research agency YouGov Zapera, and includes interviews with over 8,000 Internet users in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain, UK, Germany and France.
74% of users of Micropayment in Europe choose alternative payment methods to bank cards
Dec 8th
On the special event on December 7, 2010, dedicated to Micropayment, Hi-media has revealed the complete results of its Observatory conducted by Harris Interactive.
The “Hi-media Micropayment Observatory” involved a sample of 5,000 Internet users in Europe (France, Germany, Spain and the UK) and the United States. The study highlights 7 points to note on the use of micropayment:
1. Micropayment is used on average by 40% of Internet users, whether European ou American.
2. Among users of Micropayment, 74% of Europeans choose an alternative payment method to bank cards for their online purchases for an amount totaling under €10.
3. With 56% of prompted awareness, Allopass distinguishes itself for French users and is ranked as the 2nd Micropayment solution in spontaneous and prompted awareness.
4. Micropayment is very appreciated by users and has a very good image: speed, straightforwardness and usefulness are the 3 key advantages of Micropayment whatever the country.
5. More than 75% of European micropayment users, and nearly 70% of American users recommend micropayment solutions to friends and family.
6. Micropayment is particularly popular among Internet users for online music and games.
7. Micropayment has potential for growth, particularly in online media information.
For the complete study, please click on the following link: The Hi-media Micropayment Observatory 2010
Payment options: The More Extensive, The Better
Sep 23rd
It seems that the majority of our customers can, at times, get confused over whether to use PSMS, prepaid cards or IVR as the main payment options for their premium content online. They ponder their options in order to determine how they should maximize revenues, taking into consideration conversion rates and payouts. Our approach to this discussion is always clear: each payment option will provide a higher commercial contribution to their revenues than any potential cannibalization rate.
Recently, OPQA www.opqa.com, a 100% Spanish multiplayer online gaming platform (and an Allopass customer for quite some time now) has been reviewing its options in order to try and increase revenues. When we sat down for our regular review, the options became clear: revenue growth can be achieved either by increasing the audience or by increasing ARPU (average revenue per user). As increasing the audience is essentially a long term strategy, we concentrated on trying to increase the ARPU and proposed that they start including additional methods of payment as a test. We consequently aggregated the IVR at fixed cost (905 numbers in Spain) and ran this alongside the current PSMS offer.
The results after almost a month of this new approach were both surprising and revealing. The revealing element was that sales coming in from IVR solutions increased steadily to provide 21% of all revenues. The surprising part was that the revenues from PSMS remained unchanged.
What is the conclusion of all this? Primarily – it is that by increasing the payment options available clients will not suffer from revenue cannibalization. On the contrary, users seem to find their preferred method of payment when they are exposed to a wider range of payment solutions.
Therefore, it is always worthwhile to talk honestly and openly to your providers in order to try and find new methods of increasing revenues.
Online Gaming Study: Gamescrunch and Hi-media Payments provide a worldwide overview of the online gaming market
May 31st
The “Online Gaming Segmentation & Companies Mapping” study, produced by GamesCrunch and Hi-Media payments gathers all of the information relative to online gaming within one exhaustive database: market segmentation, main actors, business models, market trends etc.
Hi-media Payments and GamesCrunch strove to segment this market that is forecasted to represent revenues of $8.2 billion in 2010 (+32% relative to 2009). The study presents and analyses the activities of the main actors in the online gaming industry, based on several criteria: number of employees, year of creation, main games and associated business models…
This quantitative analysis is enhanced with the views of the online gaming actors. Using the statements that they collected, Hi-media Payments and GamesCrunch have identified and plotted the market’s major trends, the various existing economic models and the key success factors.
The study describes an online gaming industry that is constantly changing. The market is now more diversified than ever: over and above the technology-driven developments, the industry is constantly adapting to the evolving behaviour of web surfers. As such, online games have integrated the viral and social community dimensions that have developed through social networks.
While becoming more diversified, accessible and social, the online gaming industry has also become more competitive, resulting in an evolution of business models towards the Freemium model that is now becoming more generalized. This has resulted in an increase in the number of free online games offering payment-based options that can be acquired via micro-payment platforms.
Marketed by Hi-media Payments and GamesCrunch, the study will be updated on a regular basis. For more information: http://www.gamescrunch.com.
Hi-media Payments sponsors the Web Game Conference (Paris, April 29)
Apr 28th
Hi-media Payments, and Allopass, the group’s micropayments service, are sponsors of the first Web Game Conference, on 29 April at the Léonard de Vinci University Cluster in Paris, France.
At the initiative of Owlient, one of the leading European browser game companies with a 10M+ player worldwide community on its games Howrse and Babydow and in partnership with Hi-Media Payments, the De Vinci University International Multimedia Institute and the Syndicat National du Jeu Vidéo (French national video game federation), the Web Game Conference is aimed at leaders and innovators of the Web Game Industry.
This annual conference brings together European industry leaders to discuss, collaborate, and share advancements about design, business, community and legal areas of social and browser based game development.
Join us and over 30 international industry speakers and 220 trade visitors to enhance your knowledge of the social and browser games European market and attend web game development lectures, roundtables and meetings centered around two main themes:
- designing and developing a web game
- monetizing and marketing a web game
Take a look at the conference agenda here: http://www.webgameconf.eu/agenda
To follow the event on Twitter: webgameconf
We look forward to meeting you there!
Pooj Preena to speak at NY Media Summit
Mar 8th
Pooj Preena, CEO of Hi-media USA, will speak at the New York Media Summit this week, being held at the McGraw-Hill Building in New York City.
The NY Media Summit brings together global leaders from the worlds of Media, Advertising, Television, Social Media, Mobile, Cable & Satellite, Publishing, News Media, Motion Pictures, Marketing and more.
Preena is speaking on a panel titled “Digital Money: Virtual Currencies: Experimenting and Developing a Micropayment Economy”, being held on Wednesday, March 10th from 3:45 – 5:00 p.m.
In this session, panelists representing payment and offer platforms, content owners and analysts will look at how the micropayments industry has evolved over the past several years, and how publishers, banks, PayPal and others are creating new micropayment-based product offerings.
Hi-media is the only company that offers both advertising AND payments under one roof, giving us tremendous insight into how publishers, merchants and online game developers can generate additional revenue and monetize their content.
The panel will include:
- Karl Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO, PLAYSPAN, Inc.
- Scott Kessler, Senior Director, Information Technology, Internet Software & Services and Internet Retail, Standard & Poor’s Equity Research
- Kris Soumas, Head of Games, A&E Television Networks
- Pooj Preena, CEO, Groupe Hi-Media USA
- Renata Dionello, Chief of Staff to CEO, ebay (PayPal)
- Mihir Shah, Chief Revenue Officer, Offerpal Media
- Robert Abbott, General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners, Moderator
We hope to see you at the McGraw Hill Building, 1221 Avenue of the Americas (49th St. & 6th Ave). More info on The Media Summit website can be found here: http://www.digitalhollywood.com/MediaSummit.html
Allopass announces New Mobile Payment Solution in France
Feb 18th
Hi-media Payments is pleased to announce that a new French mobile payment solution called MPME is now live on the Allopass platform. We are the first to offer this new mobile option in addition to premium SMS.
MPME – Micro Payment Mobile Enablers – is a one-shot WAP payment available on all 3 carriers in France: Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom. Advantages to this new solution include:
- the ability to charge higher price points: up to 8EUR for a one-shot payment
- more price points available than with pSMS
- weekly and monthly subscriptions
- better payouts
For the French speakers, you can see a quick video demonstration here : http://vimeo.com/9202765 and get detailed information on our Allopass website.
Stay connected, more payment options will be announced soon!
Hi-media’s Allopass Payment Service Further Expands in the US
Feb 4th
We’re excited to announce that we’ve established a San Francisco office to bring our Allopass micropayments platform to the North American market. The micropayments space is certainly crowded, but we’ve got more opportunities for merchants than ever before!
- We offer a platform that can not only bill to a mobile phone but credit cards, ISPs, home phones, prepaid cards and more.
- We’ve also got nearly ten years behind us in the space, currently processing more than 8 million transactions a month globally.
- We’re the only payments provider that offers merchant payments within 7-10 days of a transaction.
- We are the only company that can provide online advertising reach and mobile payments under one roof – through synergistic opportunities with other Hi-media businesses.
Some of our initial US customers that we announced today include: Artix Entertainment, Boomerang Networks, Gambit, gWallet, Merscom Games, OLX, Peanut Labs, Quepasa, Sometrics, Sonico, TheBroth, Viwawa, Viximo, and Wadja. Check out our blog for many more partners to be announced soon!
You can read the full release here and be sure to check the News coverage of our US launch as well!
Hi-media revenues up 27% in 2009
Feb 4th
Our parent company Hi-media recently published their revenue for the past year. The Group reported 172.1M euros in sales for 2009, which is a 27% increase from 2008.
Hi-media payments, the Group’s micropayment business grew strongly in 2009, up 30% compared with the previous year. For the fourth quarter, organic growth remained strong at 18% year on year.
“ Hi-media unique position in Europe and our advertising and payments technological know-how make us confident about 2010 in our effort to continue our development worldwide” Cyril Zimmermann, Hi-media CEO, said.
You can read and download the complete press release on the Hi-media PR website section
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