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Fortumo signs billing agreement with China Unicom and China Telecom to complete its carrier set

Also building out Chinese app distribution reach

Fortumo signs billing agreement with China Unicom and China Telecom to complete its carrier set
As recent figure underline, there are 171 million mobile gamers in China, but not many of them have credit cards.

That's the opportunity for Estonian-based payment company Fortumo.

It's just announced it has integrated its payment system with China Unicom and China Telecom.

Added to its previous China Mobile deal, this means developers integrating the Fortumo payment system can now deploy carrier billing across all Chinese gamers.

Pay and Play

In addition to billing, Fortumo is offering developers distribution through channels such as 360, 91, Wandoujia, HiAPK, Baidu and operators' app stores.

As part of this drive, it's opened an office in Beijing, also signing deals for preloaded content on Android devices from OEM ZTE.

And Chinese developers such as CocoaChina, Gamewave and Boyaa are using Fortumo to support global carrier billing for their international game releases.

"China is already the largest Android market in the world, but Western developers are struggling to enter the market as traditional payment methods, like credit cards, are available to few users and the distribution is very fragmented," commented Fortumo's SVP of business development Gerri Kodres.

"Carrier billing can account for up to 75 percent of all revenues generated from Android apps in China, and now Fortumo enables international developers to take advantage of the most widely-available payment method in the country."

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.