MessageCloud signs deal with leading Social site for Payments and Messaging
MessageCloud has signed a service agreement with a leading social website to deliver worldwide SMS Messaging and Mobile Carrier Billing for memberships in several markets.
MessageCloud will be powering all new signups using the popular Verify product, essentially 2FA via OTP SMS (One time passwords) for new user activation’s and for members they can choose to pay for their memberships via Carrier Billing aka direct operator billing in many European markets.
Carrier Billing for maximum uptake
Over the last year more social and dating platforms are looking to Carrier Billing, with many integrating into their mobile sites and apps. Carrier Billing provides significant advantages over credit card billing, with the majority of mobile users taking advantage of both one time and subscription payments when they are able to use their mobile to pay.
To date, Carrier Billing has seen as much as a 20%+ increase in customer payments across social and dating websites. Customer conversions see immediate uplift due to the ease of use and simple integration using the MessageCloud payments API, which provides billing to many markets.
OTP SMS for activation’s
For new user signups the added benefit of OTP SMS is a game changer. Fake signups across online dating communities and social websites are plenty. As these users signup on their websites, it damages the website credibility and cuts retention rates. Not least it provides a secure 2FA method to validate a user.
According to a 2012 report, 1 in 10 online dating profiles are scams, highlighting the extent of the issue.
Using SMS verification as a way to cut down on fake accounts can increase loyalty and confidence for customers site wide. Websites can enable their users to enter their mobile number, receive a OTP and enter it to verify, therefore, associating their mobile number with their account.
By using SMS verification, all user signups will need to have a mobile number to join, this impacts the ability to create multiple usernames and fake accounts.
To add a further level of validation to this process adding MessageCloud’s Analyse product to the mix will lookup the network of the mobile number before issuing an OTP.