Zong is one of a breed of mobile payments company that interacts directly with operators. Avoiding credit cards or banks, Zong focuses on letting customers buy virtual currency which they can spend on-line. The price of that currency is added straight to the mobile bill. Social networking site Gaia Online has announced a deal with Zong, so that subscribers can buy Gaia Cash.
Gaia Online is one of these digital “hangout” services. Subscribers create an avatar and hang out with other Gaians, playing games or watching movies. Gaia Cash can be used to buy virtual goods inside the Gaia world – digital perks to the service that aren’t available for free. Zong has mobile billing deals with 100+ mobile operators globally, so Gaia Onlines 8,000,000 subscribers in pretty much any country can access the service.
via The Paypers
From the release:
“As one of the most active online communities and economies, we believe strongly in giving our members a wide variety of payment options available across multiple technology platforms,” said Joe Hyrkin, Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Gaia Online. “Extending the Zong frictionless mobile payment platform as a mechanism for purchasing Gaia Cash is a great opportunity for us to help members more easily and creatively express themselves via purchases.”
“With more than eight million members conducting in excess of 100,000 transactions daily, Gaia Online represents one of the world’s most vibrant online virtual economies,” said David Marcus, Founder and CEO, Zong. “We’re confident that Gaia Online’s teen-based membership community will find Zong to be even easier than a traditional credit or debit card-based payment, and this partnership underscores the tremendous economic potential of the high-growth virtual goods industry.”
What we think?
Zong has an incredibly strong hand in the virtual currency market, which makes it pretty appealing to those without credit cards. Teenagers, who are more likely to use Facebook or Gaia than Twitter, can buy at least some products online without needing a bank account. I imagine that once a Zong customer gets their own job, and their own credit card, then that’s one less customer. Luckily for Zong, it has an audience with a high turnover!
