The mobile payments company Fortumo is announcing that it has signed partnerships with top-performing global smartphone manufacturers Oppo Electronics and Gionee.
As part of these partnerships, Fortumo's direct carrier billing solution will be implemented for payments in the manufacturers' app stores and Fortumo's app catalogue becomes available for device preloads.
"Oppo's and Gionee's strong focus on emerging markets is aligned with that of Fortumo as we all believe that the next billion smartphone owners coming from these regions will also want access to top entertainment content. Fortumo can enable this through simple and accessible payments and we are happy to be the billing provider of choice for the app stores of these leading OEMs," said Gerri Kodres, SVP of Business Development & Carrier Relations at Fortumo.
Gionee and Oppo are among a new wave of quickly growing Asian smartphone manufacturers. In total, they produce and ship more than 60 million smartphones annually that reach end-users in emerging markets as diverse as South-East Asia, Africa and India.
Fortumo's app catalogue - which will become available to Gionee for preloads - includes apps and games from some of the biggest developers in the world: Gameloft, GLU Mobile, Creative Mobile, Rovio, Zeptolab, EA Mobile, Boyaa, Herocraft and Floor84 Studios among others.
Fortumo is the only mobile payment provider with a self-service setup and scalable on boarding of app and game developers. For app stores, Fortumo's direct carrier billing connections with more than 350 mobile operators in 80 countries ensure 100% payment coverage in almost all emerging markets for any app store through only one integration.
Fortumo has previously announced a partnership with the leading Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE and all three Chinese mobile operators (China Mobile, China Unicom & China Telecom). The company is heavily investing in the Asian region and has recently opened new offices in China (Shanghai), India (Mumbai) and Singapore.