LONDON — The European market for digital content is expected to increase from an estimated 15.8 billion Euros in 2012 to nearly 29 billion Euros in 2017, paving the way for a surge in direct carrier billing, according to a new white paper from Juniper Research and international mobile payment and messaging company DIMOCO.
The white paper, “Is Mobile Operator Payment the Ideal Payment Method for Digital Content?,” also revealed an increase of mobile handset penetration of more than 120 percent, indicating that direct carrier billing provides an ideal opportunity to implement an anytime, anywhere payment mechanism, DIMOCO noted.
“The beauty of the direct carrier billing process lies in its simplicity and ubiquity: if enabled, it can be utilized by anyone with a mobile phone, allowing content providers to monetize digital content through the hundreds of millions of consumers who lack credit or debit cards, or who simply don’t want to register a card. Where carrier billing has been deployed, not only do conversion rates rise sharply, but there is a marked increase in average transaction values,” Juniper’s Research Director, Dr. Windsor Holden, said.
In addition, the study found that direct carrier billing implementation has seen between 10 and 14 times the conversion rate of credit cards.
Other highlights of the white paper note that the European digital content market is expected to grow from an estimated 15.8 billion Euros in 2012 to just under 29 billion Euro in 2017: more than 283 million adults across Europe do not own a debit card, and the fast increasing proportion of 12-15 year olds who own smartphones are also unable to purchase content this way.
The study further reveald that as a result of the increase in direct carrier billing, content providers have seen average transaction values rise by more than 40 percent.
Juniper Research also said it believes that the value of digital content billed via direct carrier billing will increase from just under 790 million Euros last year to more than 5.2 billion in 2017, representing average annual growth over the forecast period of 46 percent.
Content providers are recommended to ensure that their billing platforms enable direct carrier billing via PCs and TVs, to monetize the multi screen content opportunity, the report said.
To download the white paper click here.
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