Boku’s SDK For One-Tap Mobile Payments on Android Comes Out of Beta
Boku is rolling out a software development kit (or SDK) for Android developers to incorporate mobile payments in their apps across 56 countries today.
The SDK lets developers give their users an easy way to pay for virtual currency by putting the charges directly on their monthly phone bill. It was first announced about a year ago.
While Google launched in-app billing three months ago, there are still markets where the company hasn’t secured direct carrier billing agreements for or where credits cards aren’t widely used. Plus, there are also multiple Android app stores which might not have decent infrastructure for payments.
Boku says its payment solution, which makes it simple for consumers to pay for virtual currency or goods in games, is complementary to Google Checkout.
The developer agreement for the platform’s official app store, Android Market, says that apps should only use an “authorized payment processor.” To date, it’s our understanding that Google Checkout is the only authorized method although the platform hasn’t really enforced this. So some developers have turned to Google Checkout’s in-app billing while others have used Paypal.
“There are rules and regulations and developers should definitely comply with them,” said David Yoo, the senior vice president of strategy at Boku. “But what we’re hearing from developers is that there’s more than just the Android marketplace and they want to distribute in these third-party stores.”
Boku doesn’t disclose its transaction fees but suggested they would be in a typical range of between 2 and 6 percent.
The countries covered by the company’s SDK include Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UAE, UK, US, Venezuela and Vietnam.
Boku has raised at least $40 million with a round of an undisclosed size last year from Andreessen Horowitz.
July 3rd, 2011 at 11:19 am
Phone number stored in android can be faked easily. How is Boku going to validate the consumer?
August 12th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
BOKU has a big problem, which is that it is not in control of its destiny. The company does own its payment processing platform and has established direct relationships with merchants, but its carrier partners – T-Mobile, AT&T, etc. – own the customer relationships and can dictate the terms of service, including the pricing. The way I see it, the start-up will not be able to remain an independent company. So BOKU’s best possible exit strategy is to make itself attractive to as many potential buyers as it possibly can and try to trigger a bidding war among them. http://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/can-boku-survive-the-evolution-of-direct-carrier-billing