The rise of social gaming in the last year or so has been pretty impressive. While social games developers like Zynga, Playfish, Playdom and others have greatly benefited, companies facilitating payments for virtual item micro-transactions are also on the rise. Hi-media Payments in particular has done very well with the social gaming gold rush, as its Allopass micropayments platform currently processes over 8 million transactions per month, making it the largest micropayment platform in Europe and Latin America. Now, Allopass is coming to North America.
With a new San Francisco office, to be overseen by Pooj Preena, CEO of Hi-media USA, Hi-media Payments will "service U.S. customers and their clients in the U.S. and globally, and continue to provide solutions that address the phenomenal growth of micropayments driven by virtual goods economies and the increasing need for publishers to directly monetize online content."
Initial U.S. customers implementing the Allopass platform already include Artix Entertainment, Boomerang Networks, Gambit, gWallet, Merscom Games, OLX, Peanut Labs, Quepasa, Sometrics, Sonico, TheBroth, Viwawa, Viximo, and Wadja.
Allopass has been successful in part because of its flexible options for consumers. The payment platform supports nine different payment methods, including mobile payments, home phone billing and third-party pre-paid card offerings, and more localized payment methods are being "added regularly." Clients like it because they can select the most relevant payment options that offer the highest conversion rate for their end users.
"This comprehensive offering has been proven to reduce or avoid friction in the checkout process, thereby leading to higher completion rates, and generate more paying customers than credit cards alone. Additionally, Allopass is the only micropayment platform that offers merchant settlement in less than ten days, a significant advantage for smaller companies that cannot afford to wait upward of 60 days to be paid," Hi-media Payments said in a statement.
“We know micropayments, and after almost a decade working with thousands of online merchants around the world, we have a firm understanding of what it takes to make payments friction-free while offering merchants more options along with fast and efficient payback,” said Preena. “We give merchants the tools to cater to this wider audience of consumers and open up new revenue streams.”
