Zong Launches Subscription-Based Mobile Payments
PALO ALTO, Calif.-(Business Wire)-September 22, 2009 - Zong (www.Zong.com), the most frictionless payment service for publishers of online games and other digital content, today announced the launch of its subscription-based mobile payment service. Zong is now the first mobile payments platform to offer a subscription service, which allows Zong customers to extend a recurring bill-to-mobile option of up to $9.99 a month to their membership base. This marks an extension of the company’s existing pay-as-you-go feature which is featured on some of the largest and most popular social networking applications, virtual worlds and online games, reaching more than 1 billion mobile users worldwide.
“Our integration of Zong is in-line with our core philosophy that online gaming experiences, including the ability to easily choose from a variety of payment options, should be accessible to everyone,” said Dan Porter, CEO, OMGPOP. “Deploying a proven mobile payment solution on a monthly subscription basis will make it easier for our users to sign up for membership, letting them get more out of OMGPOP, and building an exceptional model for additional revenue enhancement.”
Photobucket, the premier standalone photo and video sharing site with 45 million unique monthly visitors, and OMGPOP, a real-time social gaming platform with more than a million daily game plays, are each extending Zong’s Recurring Payment Service as a payment option to their users. Photobucket users interested in upgrading to the site’s Pro service and OMGPOP users interested in upgrading to its Star Membership no longer have to enter up to 70 characters of identifying and financial information. Instead they can bill the membership fees to their mobile phone simply by entering their 10 digit mobile phone number online, receiving a four digit confirmation PIN by SMS text, then entering that PIN online to complete the purchase. The monthly membership fee then appears as a line item on the user’s monthly mobile phone bill.
“Subscription-based payments bring a greater degree of dependability to an online merchant’s revenue stream and are a natural next step in extending the Zong mobile payment platform,” said David Marcus, founder and CEO, Zong. “Photobucket’s and OMGPOP’s use of Zong’s Recurring Payment Service demonstrates the potential of mobile payment platforms to continue to gain popularity and use across a variety of consumer demographics and use cases.”
Beginning today, the subscription service is available to all Zong customers looking to subscribe U.S.-based mobile users. In the coming months, Zong will expand its subscription service to customers in Europe, Canada and Australia. Consumers can easily cancel any subscription via SMS, a phone call or the merchant’s website.
About Zong
Zong is the leading mobile payment service used by online gaming and social networking web sites. Noted for its frictionless user experience, Zong converts "shoppers" into "buyers" at rates up to 10 times greater than traditional payment methods, like credit cards. Zong leverages direct connections with leading mobile network operators around the world to provide unrivaled connectivity and service quality. Zong is featured in hundreds of top applications on popular social networks like Facebook and MySpace as well as leading virtual worlds and other online gaming sites, such as Gaia Online, IMVU and Outspark. In 2009 alone Zong has processed mobile payments for over 10 million unique users worldwide. Zong is the mobile payments business unit of Echovox, which was founded in 2000. For more information, please visit http://www.zong.com.
About OMGPOP
OMGPOP, formerly known as iminlikewithyou, is a platform for real time social gaming. The viral gaming site has grown to over a million daily game plays since the launch of its first game 18 months ago and was recently named as one of Time's "50 Best Websites of 2009." The OMGPOP platform allows users to easily play games against their friends or other community members. The community consists mostly of teens and college kids, aged 15 to 25, with a 50/50 gender split. Average users log in 100 times a month to play games such as Balloono, Draw My Thing, Ballracer, and Hit Machine.
OMGPOP is funded by Spark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Baseline Ventures and Betaworks, as well as angel investors including Ron Conway, Kevin Rose and Marc Andreessen. OMGPOP is a place for people to play free multiplayer games and meet each other. For more information, please visit www.OMGPOP.com
About Photobucket
Photobucket is the premier standalone photo and video sharing site, with over 45 million monthly unique users* around the world linking billions of personal photos, graphics, slideshows and videos daily to hundreds of thousands of Web sites, including Bebo, Blogger, Craigslist, eBay, Facebook, Friendster, Hi5, MySpace, Orkut, Xanga and many others. In addition to linking content, Photobucket users share their personal digital media by email, instant messaging, and mobile devices. Every day, over 11 million personal photos, graphics and videos are uploaded to Photobucket for sharing with family, friends and the online world. The company actively moderates content to create a safe environment for its users, partners and advertisers. Photobucket has offices in San Francisco, California and Denver, Colorado and is located online at http://photobucket.com. For the latest feature announcements and news, please visit the Photobucket blog at http://blog.photobucket.com.
*comScore Media Metrix, Mary 2009
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