As games continue to rely more and more on IAPs to generate revenue, billing systems become ever more important.

Estonian live billing outfit Fortumo is one of the companies looking to slot between IAPs and players wallets via its IAP SDK and self-service portal.

We caught up with co-founder and chief revenue officer Martin Koppel to find out more about what makes Fortumo tick.

Pocket Gamer: What are the current challenges of the mobile payment sector?

Martin Koppel: The biggest challenge still is the competition as the market is very crowded.

At the same time, this is the main reason that drives to innovate and disrupt the market. The key for this year is to continue changing the fee-structure of this market.

The one that achieves to drive the transaction costs down, will most probably change the current market structure a lot.

How much more effective do you think carrier billing is over other payment methods?

It depends on the geographical region and whether it is used in web or mobile apps.

Based on different studies, mobile payments converts on average 7-9 times better than credit card payments. The reason is that everyone has a mobile phone and the payment process is today by far the easiest.

There are also entire regions such as central and eastern Europe and Latin America where credit card penetration is really low and where mobile payments is almost the only reliable payment option.

And we see vast difference between web and mobile apps. On the web, people are more willing to insert their credit card numbers, on mobile it doesn't feel natural and drops the payment conversion rate.

Since every person that has a phone has a relationship with the carrier, it allows to have true one-click payments inside mobile apps which converts several times more than any other payment method.

What do you think Fortumo offers that your rivals don't?

Every competitor is different and they all have their stronger and weaker sides. Fortumo is the only one who has the best coverage in emerging markets where credit card-based and other payment methods do not convert well enough.

Fortumo was the among the first to create truly functional carrier-billing-based in-app payment SDK and we have continuously stayed ahead of competition in this high-growth segment ever since.

Nowadays lot of innovation is done by small and medium-sized developers. With our self-service portal, we are the only ones that offer affordable and easy-to integrate mobile billing solution to such long-tail customers.

How difficult is it to to build a new operator connection?

Technically it isn't difficult, and with good engineers it doesn't take much time. The biggest challenge is getting the commercials right, agreeing on co-operation model and procedures which may take several months.

You have deals in 61 countries, so where are the big white gaps still on your map and how do you expect to fill them?

We are moving together with our clients and need to be one step ahead, detecting next hot regions.

Online games contribute a lot to Latin America and Middle East, app developers on the other side to Asia and Russian speaking countries. These are also the regions where we'll fill our big white gaps this year.

There's been plenty of speculation about your deal with Rovio. Can you shed any light on how many countries it's available in, and what the plans are for the future?

Unfortunately I can't comment the nature of the agreement nor the numbers at the moment.

Do you think publishers or content companies of a similar scale could partner up for their own branded billing systems?

Yes, some are already doing that and others are thinking about it.

In the end of the day it all comes down to the business strategy, but I personally see that for certain publishers, it would be a good fit.

What does 2012 hold for Fortumo?

In 2011, we started working with breakthrough products and initiated strategic deals which should bring great commercials for our merchants in several hotspots.

In 2012 we'll finalise those deals and launch several really neat solutions that should disrupt the market.
Thanks to Martin for his time.

You can find out what Fortumo gets up to via its website.