Global payments operator Fortumo has launched ‘Bundling’, a product that will help merchants and carriers/telecom operators strike and launch bundle partnerships. The company will essentially help online merchants and carriers strike deals like “buy 5GB data, get X service for 6 months of free”, and implement them. As of now the company claims to have over 350 mobile operators whose subscribers can be targeted for user acquisition through ‘Bundling’. The platform will also support any type of bundles, like free or discounted access to services, free data promotions etc. Carriers on the other hand can choose from various partners like music to video streaming, anti-viruses, productivity tools etc., as well as pre-configure bundle packages to roll out differently to prepaid and postpaid subscribers etc. Note that Fortumo primarily focuses on carrier billing, and had partnered with RCOM to let its customers purchase digital content and games by charging the payments to their mobile bill or mobile prepaid account, in May last year. With this, Fortumo mentioned that it covers 813 million users with 79% coverage along with other operators in India that include Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Aircel. Tie ups with streaming services: In March, online video streaming application HOOQ partnered with Fortumo for direct carrier billing in India, which would let HOOQ users charge payments to their mobile phone bills. Fortumo had also signed a similar deal with Sony LIV earlier in December 2015.
