SMS payments: questions and answers
A month ago, I published a review of several SMS billing systems and a lively discussion arose in the comments. As it turned out, the topic is quite topical and many habra-people have unanswered questions. I gathered some of them and asked my good friend Alexey Losev, who is the executive director of MP bill . Answers Alexey you can read below. It is clear that direct contact with habramen very interested in him, because here he can convey information to many potential partners. In the comments to this topic, Alexey will answer all the questions related to the SMS payments that you ask. Nick Alexey - raw_power raw_power.
Q: Why such a predatory commission? Why does the resource owner get at best 50-60% of the cost of an SMS?
A: Most of the cost of SMS is taken by the mobile operator. This is the policy of the operators. And in Russia, some of the best interest. If you look at the deductions for some Azerbaijan, then there is generally a silent horror. The country is small, the operators are monopolists and immediately take 50%. But something needs to be carved out for billing in order for it to exist. In the West, by the way, partnership deductions are sometimes even less, everyone is used to it.
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Q: Let's say a client from England is going to Holland and he has roaming there. Will he be able to pay via SMS access to an online game based in Russia?
A: Mostly yes, only the operator will take his roaming fee for sms, but the billing commission will remain the same.
Q: On the websites of many billing systems one can often find the words “fraud”, “fraud checks”. Can you simply and clearly explain what it is?
A: Frod is a way to scam with a mobile phone. Most often, these are paid SMS sent from unsecured numbers. A simple example: a user’s mobile phone has 50 rubles in his account and he buys an artifact in an online SMS game, which costs $ 10. SMS-ka passes, the user receives the artifact, but the money from his account can not be deducted, because they are simply not there. Accordingly, the mobile operator does not pay anything to the billing, and the billing cannot pay anything to its partner. This is fraud. About once a month, fraud checks are made with mobile operators, during which it turns out what traffic was “clean” and what traffic was “fraud”. Some billing programs independently introduce mechanisms for identifying fraud numbers and with a high degree of accuracy determine those numbers that fall into the carrier database of fraud numbers.
Q: And nothing can be done about it?
A: The interaction between the billing and the mobile operator is such that the possibility of fraud itself cannot be avoided. Although, for example, in Western Europe, as a rule, the telecom operator assumes the financial risks associated with various types of fraud, and not billing, as is customary in our country.
There are two more serious problems: spam and so-called alarms. Spam - he and in Africa spam, for example, massively sent SMS-message “Action from the operator XXX! Send an SMS with the word money to the number YYYY and you will receive +10 dollars to your account. ” Some subscribers believe, send SMS and then very surprised. In the case of massive spam, such mobile operators are very unhappy, they can block a short number for some time, as a result of which billing and its partners suffer. Spammers looking for security service, in short all the problems. And alarms are fraudulent java-applications that, under the guise of useful programs, “sneak” into mobile phones and send paid SMS on their own.
Q: And here is another mysterious word, more precisely an abbreviation - IVR. What is it?
A: This is a mobile payment method similar to SMS, only here the user must call from his phone to a certain number and “hang” on the line as many minutes as necessary to pay for the goods or services. For example, if a service costs $ 3, and the cost of one minute is $ 1, then it will need to stay on the line for 3 minutes. In Russia, IVR is not very popular, but in the West it is very common.
Q: Do the billing systems allow the user to form the text of the response SMS?
A: Yes, of course. Many billing systems have this feature.
Q: And why paid SMS on the Internet do not die out as a class at all? Why should resource owners lose the lion's share of profits on SMS if they can register with one of the electronic money payment systems?
A: Because SMS is convenient and easy for the end user, and the client is always right. By the way, the phenomenon: in Europe, SMS billing is alive and well, although it would seem that everyone uses credit cards. In the case of goods and services with high liquidity (for example, access to the Internet or some kind of gadgets), paid SMS is of course not very relevant. Well, if you sell “air” - the fact that in reality there is practically nothing worthwhile for you (for example, the same access to an online game), then it’s not so terrible to lose part of the profits, in return giving you the opportunity to pay any user, regardless from his technical skills. Do not make you all register in Webmoney.
Q: Why such a predatory commission? Why does the resource owner get at best 50-60% of the cost of an SMS?
A: Most of the cost of SMS is taken by the mobile operator. This is the policy of the operators. And in Russia, some of the best interest. If you look at the deductions for some Azerbaijan, then there is generally a silent horror. The country is small, the operators are monopolists and immediately take 50%. But something needs to be carved out for billing in order for it to exist. In the West, by the way, partnership deductions are sometimes even less, everyone is used to it.
')
Q: Let's say a client from England is going to Holland and he has roaming there. Will he be able to pay via SMS access to an online game based in Russia?
A: Mostly yes, only the operator will take his roaming fee for sms, but the billing commission will remain the same.
Q: On the websites of many billing systems one can often find the words “fraud”, “fraud checks”. Can you simply and clearly explain what it is?
A: Frod is a way to scam with a mobile phone. Most often, these are paid SMS sent from unsecured numbers. A simple example: a user’s mobile phone has 50 rubles in his account and he buys an artifact in an online SMS game, which costs $ 10. SMS-ka passes, the user receives the artifact, but the money from his account can not be deducted, because they are simply not there. Accordingly, the mobile operator does not pay anything to the billing, and the billing cannot pay anything to its partner. This is fraud. About once a month, fraud checks are made with mobile operators, during which it turns out what traffic was “clean” and what traffic was “fraud”. Some billing programs independently introduce mechanisms for identifying fraud numbers and with a high degree of accuracy determine those numbers that fall into the carrier database of fraud numbers.
Q: And nothing can be done about it?
A: The interaction between the billing and the mobile operator is such that the possibility of fraud itself cannot be avoided. Although, for example, in Western Europe, as a rule, the telecom operator assumes the financial risks associated with various types of fraud, and not billing, as is customary in our country.
There are two more serious problems: spam and so-called alarms. Spam - he and in Africa spam, for example, massively sent SMS-message “Action from the operator XXX! Send an SMS with the word money to the number YYYY and you will receive +10 dollars to your account. ” Some subscribers believe, send SMS and then very surprised. In the case of massive spam, such mobile operators are very unhappy, they can block a short number for some time, as a result of which billing and its partners suffer. Spammers looking for security service, in short all the problems. And alarms are fraudulent java-applications that, under the guise of useful programs, “sneak” into mobile phones and send paid SMS on their own.
Q: And here is another mysterious word, more precisely an abbreviation - IVR. What is it?
A: This is a mobile payment method similar to SMS, only here the user must call from his phone to a certain number and “hang” on the line as many minutes as necessary to pay for the goods or services. For example, if a service costs $ 3, and the cost of one minute is $ 1, then it will need to stay on the line for 3 minutes. In Russia, IVR is not very popular, but in the West it is very common.
Q: Do the billing systems allow the user to form the text of the response SMS?
A: Yes, of course. Many billing systems have this feature.
Q: And why paid SMS on the Internet do not die out as a class at all? Why should resource owners lose the lion's share of profits on SMS if they can register with one of the electronic money payment systems?
A: Because SMS is convenient and easy for the end user, and the client is always right. By the way, the phenomenon: in Europe, SMS billing is alive and well, although it would seem that everyone uses credit cards. In the case of goods and services with high liquidity (for example, access to the Internet or some kind of gadgets), paid SMS is of course not very relevant. Well, if you sell “air” - the fact that in reality there is practically nothing worthwhile for you (for example, the same access to an online game), then it’s not so terrible to lose part of the profits, in return giving you the opportunity to pay any user, regardless from his technical skills. Do not make you all register in Webmoney.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/30196/
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