
Good time of day, Habraludi.
I want to share with you a real problem, the solution of which I could not find on the Internet, so the comments of “Google Help” will be out of place - except direct links to serious resources where you can really find useful information.
So.
Our company has a certain site X. One of the earning channels from the site, in addition to media and other advertising, are micropayments from our users for paying for the content they provide by sending SMS from mobile phones.
Immediately make a reservation resource Ukrainian, com. problem-solving schemes, as in Russia, are not suitable - as we have other legislation and other mobile operators, namely: Kyivstar, MTS, Life.
To make it clearer what is meant, I will bring an example: you all saw ads on TV when people are invited to receive a ringtone or a toy on their phone after the subscriber sends an SMS with a code to a specific short number. After sending an SMS, a certain amount is withdrawn from his account and the content ordered by him comes to the phone.
In this process, 4 links are involved: the subscriber himself, who sends SMS, the person who provides the content, the intermediary firm that provides the service of payments through the mobile and the mobile operator itself.
In our case, about the same thing happens. We are content providers and work with a large intermediary firm.
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Our net monthly income on micropayments is 12 thousand UAH. - This is about 1500 dollars. USA. We have to pay 1/3 of this amount to the intermediary - i.e. 500 dollars and another $ 500 mobile operators themselves.
Total for the year from net profit - i.e. of the money that our users directly pay via SMS, we lose almost 100 thousand hryvnias, which is about 12,000 dollars.
After thinking about how to increase your income, bypassing both the intermediary firm and the operator, we decided that in principle it is technologically possible. BUT - there was a question about cash withdrawal.
Having rummaged in the Internet, I found a scant information that in principle it is possible to cash out, but if it is a more or less large amount - representatives of WebMoney can cash it out - but take 50% for it - that you will agree too much.
If small - say 10-30 dollars - then our people cash them with people who replenish their cell phone bills at the metro and at bus stops. They also take a percentage, but a small one - but agree with me that this is not an option.
Well, I also read that officially Ukrainian operators do not provide cash withdrawal services from a mobile. accounts.
There are no other convenient and fast ways to pay micropayments, except via SMS at the moment - as I understand it, neither in Russia nor in Ukraine - because the overwhelming majority of users do not have web-wallets and Visa-class credit cards to make such payments via the Internet.
Secondly, payment via SMS is very fast and convenient (especially in the case of micropayments, and not with the purchase of household appliances, books), the mobile phone is always at hand, you can actually go to the site and pay for the content from it.
As a result, I have a question - who faced a similar problem? Who and how to solve it? And what alternatives are there for conducting micropayments, except via web-based money and bank cards, so as not to give away 75% of your income?