Fortumo’s Latest Telco Deals in China Give It Nationwide Coverage

Fortumo Ltd., which provides mobile payments through carrier phone bills, has entered agreements with China Unicom and China Telecom.

These deals, combined with an earlier agreement with China Mobile, make Fortumo a payment option for all 1.15 billion mobile phone subscribers in China, the mobile payments provider says. Mobile software developers can use Fortumo’s system to sell digital content in apps that run on Android smartphones.

Fortumo also has an agreement with Chinese phone maker ZTE Joygor, which plans to support Fortumo’s payment method on the handsets it makes. In the third quarter, ZTE will begin selling phones preloaded with apps that use Fortumo’s carrier-billing method as a payment option.

“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,” said Gerri Kodres, senior vice president of business development and carrier partnerships at Fortumo, in a July 25 press release. “Carrier billing can account for up to 75% 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.”

Fortumo has also established an office in Beijing to work with Chinese developers and international developers that want to reach the Chinese market.