Bango Expands Into Japan’s Booming Mobile Market With Payment Option

SoftBank mobile phone owners can now pay for everything from movies to membership fees on Amazon.com with help from mobile commerce firm Bango, according to an announcement.

The United Kingdom-based mobile commerce company recently completed the installation of the new payment option on SoftBank phones, so that customers can make purchases without having to whip out a credit card or punch in a credit card number, Bango noted in its press release.

“Bango technology has ensured that our customers can enjoy a simple and successful way to buy on Amazon.co.jp,” said Toshiaki Hirata, board director, senior vice president and CSO with SB Payment Service Corp., a subsidiary of SoftBank Corp. “We look forward to benefiting from Bango data insights to accelerate the growth of our new business.”

With the SoftBank deal, Bango provides carrier billing services for the three largest mobile phone operators in Japan, as it already worked with NTT Docomo and KDDI.

Japan, in turn, is market primed for mobile payments, with mobile phone subscriptions, at 177 million, far outnumbering the country’s population of 130 million.

“Japan’s high spending population leads the world in mobile commerce. Charging the cost of goods to the phone bill is a widely adopted payment method, with billions of dollars in online purchases charged to Japanese phone bills,” said Bango CEO Paul Larbey. “The Bango Platform meets the challenge of delivering carrier billing at scale, ensuring global retailers can provide customers with the convenience and security they want from a payment method.”

Still, mobile carrier billing could be poised for broader interest beyond Japan as the world comes to grips with the implications of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In particular, the danger of infection from hand to hand contact is driving a growing number of consumers across the U.S. to reexamine their shopping habits and routines and seek out touchless payment options.