Bango reports excellent progress in Asia, opens office in Singapore

2013 saw Bango launch mobile payment across a variety of app stores, connecting subscribers from many of the world’s largest mobile network operators (MNOs). New integrations in the region included SingTel in Singapore, DiGi in Malaysia, Indosat, Telkomsel and XL Axiata in Indonesia, Globe in the Philippines and DTAC in Thailand. Bango is delivering additional Direct Operator Billing capabilities in Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Korea and Japan during 2014, so that app stores and major merchants can benefit from Bango’s “direct connect, direct contract” business model. Bango works extremely closely with its operator partners, ensuring optimized technical integrations and commercial relationships. The result is that app store and merchant partners access a unique, powerful operator billing experience.

Bango Singapore will act as a regional operating hub, supporting Bango’s activities across Asia Pacific. From here the team will be focused on the support of these existing deployments in Asia and Bango’s growing pipeline in the region. Bango is seeing significant interest from operators in emerging Asian markets, including Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh. Singapore was selected because of the excellent technical infrastructure available and the extensive connectivity to other parts of the region.

Bango enables mobile users to purchase digital content without the use of Premium SMS messages or the limitations of credit cards. Instead, users enjoy one-click Direct Operator Billing, charging the cost to their phone bill in one click, without the need to register personal details. Bango powers mobile payment for a number of the world’s leading app stores. Global leaders plugging into Bango include BlackBerry World, Facebook, Firefox Marketplace, Google Play and Windows Phone Store. Bango has more than 120 live mobile operator connections globally, and a total reach in excess of one billion mobile subscribers.

Bango CEO Ray Anderson said “The growth of low priced smartphones in countries across Asia is connecting hundreds of millions to digital commerce for the first time and represents a huge opportunity for both digital merchants and mobile operators. Asia will be a huge growth market for mobile commerce in the coming years. After a great year, Bango is excited by the range of mobile operator connections we now have in place, and we now look forward to new operator deployments and continued investment in the region”.

Bango Singapore is located in the prestigious One Raffles Quay, within the Raffles Place business district. Other tenants include ABN AMRO Bank, UBS, Deutsche Bank and Barclay’s Capital. Bango Singapore will be operated under the management of Trevor Goldberg, Bango’s VP of Business Development for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

Image: One Raffles Quay - Bango's Singapore office
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