Vinaphone debuts carrier billing on Google Play

Vietnam’s Vinaphone has become the fourth and last of the nation’s four major mobile operators to launch carrier billing over Google Play using the Fortumo payments platform.

The operator’s 20 million subscribers will be able to use the Fortumo platform to pay for apps and in-app content using their airtime balance.

With the launch, 95% of the population of Vietnam can now make payments on Google Play through Fortumo – significant for a country with smartphone penetration of 40% but credit card ownership of below 2%.

Fortumo will also provide Vinaphone with access to its Fortumo Insight statistics and data analytics platform, which helps operators analyze the performance of Google Play and use the data to make improvements to their payment infrastructure and marketing campaigns using the platform.

“Vietnam is one of Asia’s fastest growing markets for mobile services. Vinaphone has been able to successfully capitalize on this expansion and enabling Google Play for carrier billing is the logical step for Vinaphone to accelerate the growth further,” Forumo chief business officer Gerri Kodres said.

“Fortumo has established itself as the provider of choice for carriers in Asia and we are proud to help Vinaphone make Google Play payments available to millions of their users.”