SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Boku Inc., the global leader in direct carrier billing, today announced that carrier-billed subscriptions for music streaming service Spotify, which launched in Japan in September, are now available across the country’s three largest carriers.
In partnership with KDDI, Softbank and NTT Docomo, more than 158 million mobile subscribers can now use their mobile phone as a payment option for their Spotify Premium subscriptions. This marks the Japanese launch of Boku’s Phone-on-File technology, which allows merchants to manage renewal charges on a user’s mobile account in the same way as they do with cards.
Spotify gains the ability to utilize carrier billing as a powerful way to acquire new Japanese customers who find using their mobile phone number for purchases to be the easiest and most secure way to pay on any device, including PC and mobile web-based purchases. Once a free Spotify Premium trial has expired, the subscription fee will automatically appear on the user’s mobile phone bill.
Japan is a strong market for carrier billing with 77% of internet use being through mobile. This entrance into Japan is also an expansion of Boku’s existing global partnership with Spotify that already includes the UK, Germany, Italy the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia.
Jon Prideaux, CEO of Boku commented: “Japan is the world’s second largest music market and no alternative payment method has proved more effective at monetizing Japanese consumers online than carrier billing. Our partnership with Spotify and the three largest carriers in Japan is a massive win for all parties in terms of revenue growth, new subscriber acquisition, and consumer satisfaction. These new carrier agreements not only speak to the global appeal of Spotify’s streaming music service, but also to the continued growth of carrier billing’s popularity in all parts of the world as a preferred form of payment.”
Spotify is the first music service in Japan to offer both a free ad-supported service and an ad-free subscription service, which enables users to listen to music wherever and whenever they are – even while offline. To pay for Spotify via carrier billing, users can simply enter their mobile phone number to start a free 30-day trial of Spotify Premium and when the free trial expires the user is charged via their phone bill. Spotify begins charging users for Premium on the first day following the end of the trial, on a recurring monthly basis.
Spotify currently boasts more than 100 million active users, and 40 million paid subscribers across more than 50 countries worldwide.
About Spotify
Spotify (Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden, CEO: Daniel Ek) is an award-winning digital music service that gives you on-demand access to more than 30 million tracks. Our dream is to make all the world’s music available instantly to everyone, wherever and whenever you want it. Spotify makes it easier than ever to discover, manage and share music with your friends, while making sure that artists get a fair deal.
Spotify is now available in 60 markets globally with more than 100 million active users and over 40 million paying subscribers.
Since its launch in Sweden in 2008, Spotify has driven more than US $5bn to rights holders. Spotify is now the second biggest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe, and the biggest music streaming service of its kind globally. www.spotify.com
About Boku
Boku is the world’s largest direct carrier billing mobile payments company, integrated with hundreds of mobile operators all over the world. Its bank-grade payments technology allows consumers to charge purchases to their mobile phone bill. Boku partners with global merchants including Facebook, Sony, Microsoft, Spotify, Riot Games, and many more. Based in San Francisco with offices in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, Boku is funded by leading Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists including Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, GMO Payment Gateway and NEA.
For more information visit: www.boku.com
Useful Links:
Boku website: http://www.boku.com
Media Kit: http://www.boku.com/press/media/
Spotify: http://www.spotify.com/
