Dimoco Examines Trends in Billing Digital Content in France

BRUNN AM GEBIRGE, Austria—DIMOCO has published a new mobile operator payment country special, this time showing current trends in billing digital content in France. According to the study, 98.4 percent of the French population have a mobile handset and only 37.5 percent of the adults are credit card owners. Billing digital content via the four leading mobile operator payment providers Orange, SFR, Bouygues Free and Alice gives content providers full potential. Three different billing types and a tariff range up to 30 Euros are available on the French market. Click here to see a digital representation of the data. After successfully launching the Italy and Poland country specials, this is Dimoco’s third publication giving insights into mobile operator payment market trends. “Thanks to our partnerships with mobile network operators we have in-depth knowledge of the markets,” said Dimoco CEO Gerald Tauchner, adding, “With our mobile operator payment special France we are once again not only sharing our know-how but highlighting the enormous potential of a highly developed telecommunication country.” The fact that Dimoco found credit card ownership of 37.5 percent shows enormous potential when it comes to billing digital content via mobile operator payment. This fact that is also reflected in the development of value-added data services: According to ARCEP, an increase from 196 million Euros in the fourth quarter 2012 up to 226 million Euros in the fourth quarter 2013 was measured. This represents an annual growth rate of 15.4 percent—including premium-rate services such as various data and push services, e.g. chat rooms, weather forecasts, TV game shows, horoscopes and ringtone downloads—and corresponds to all amounts billed to customers by operators, including out payments from operators to service providers. At the same time the number of value-added data service messages decreased from 209 million messages in Q4/2012 to 183 million messages in Q4/2013—representing a decrease of 12.6 percent. “More and more payment transactions are made through direct carrier billing,” said Tauchner, explaining the trends in the mobile operator payment industry. In France, billing digital content is possible with all four mobile network operators: Orange, which has a market share of 44.2 percent; SFR, the second mobile network operator in the country with a market share of 34 percent; Bouygues Telecom (17.7 percent) and Free Mobile (4.1 percent). Three different billing types are available on the French market: Besides premium SMS and direct carrier billing, mobile network operators also offer ISP (Internet Service Provider) billing. While “SMS+” stands for the French Premium SMS Billing Solution, “Internet + Mobile” is the Direct Carrier Billing Solution and “Internet + Box” is the well-known, commonly used billing interface where consumers are charged via their Internet Service Provider (ISP) in France. “Including ISP billing in their portfolio is rather specific to the French market, but expands our business customers’ reach,” commented Tauchner. The payment method is well-known and commonly used in France. Digital content on the mobile and the web channel can be billed as one-off and subscription services and up to a tariff range of 30 Euros. Via mobile operator payment DIMOCO provides a by the mobile operator managed Web TAN opt-in process where a unique SMS pin code is entered on the payment page. Via ISP billing and additionally to the mobile operator payment process the consumers has to login with his username and password the first time. Dimoco was founded in the year 2000 and has become one of today’s leading mobile operator payment and messaging providers. For more information, go to Dimoco.eu.