The revolutionary retro-gaming streaming service Anstream and the mobile technology company Fortumo are today announcing the launch of a global direct carrier billing partnership. Gamers can now subscribe to Antstream and access more than 1000 iconic games by charging the purchases to their mobile phone bill or prepaid SIM card. The first market launched for Anstream users is Poland where 11 million subscribers of the telco Play can pay for the service through their mobile operator bill.
Greg Beitchman, Chief Revenue Officer at Antstream Arcade said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Fortumo to enable consumers to access thousands of Retro games through their subscriptions with telco operators. Whether on set top box, mobile device or broadband, Antstream offers casual gamers the ability to play games with friends, access tournaments, and enjoy iconic titles from Space Invaders to Mortal Kombat for a monthly subscription. Fortumo will also enable Antstream to be easily bundled with data packages and alongside devices, giving Telcos new options to offer gaming as a value-added service to consumers through their monthly phone bill.”
“Cloud and streaming based gaming services are driving the next wave of growth in the video games industry, by enabling games to be played on any devices regardless of their specifications. The adoption of 5G by mobile operators in turn supports the adoption of cloud gaming. There is a natural fit between cloud gaming and carrier billing through mobile operators, as users can access the games and pay for them through the same network provider. Antstream is a leading company in the game streaming segment and we are excited to support their growth globally,” added Andrea Boetti, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Fortumo.
Through a single connection to Fortumo’s platform, Antstream received global access to the direct carrier billing capabilities of mobile operators connected to Fortumo. This enables Antstream to roll out the payment method at scale, instead of integrating and launching mobile operators one by one.
Carrier billing provides two advantages to digital content merchants over bank-based payments: payment reach and better conversion. In regions with low credit card ownership (such as Asia, MENA and Eastern Europe) carrier billing is used by merchants to reach new paying users who don’t own a credit card for online payments.
In regions where credit card ownership is high (such as Western Europe) carrier billing provides a simpler checkout flow. Instead of filling out forms or logging into accounts, users are able to complete payments by simply confirming them with a PIN code. This results in a shorter checkout flow for carrier billing compared to other online payment methods, increasing payment conversion and revenue for digital content merchants.
Additional data on carrier billing across the world can be found from Fortumo’s global carrier billing market report.
In recent news from Europe, Fortumo has announced launching direct carrier billing with the mobile operator 3Denmark and with the game developer Epic Games across multiple countries in the region.
About Antstream Arcade
Antstream Arcade was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in London, England. Over the last few years it has become the world’s first and largest retro game subscription service and has amassed the largest collection of retro games titles available in one place.
Antstream is all about the challenge – a streaming retro service that makes classic games available on-demand on all your devices. A monthly subscription gets players access to over 1,000 video games spanning arcade hits, classic console platforms from Atari and Sega, and beloved home computers including the C64, Amiga and ZX Spectrum.
The Antstream Arcade streaming service allows users to play retro video games, directly from the cloud with no downloads or installs, on modern devices through an affordable monthly subscription. To find out more visit www.antstream.com.