The mobile payment company Fortumo today announced that it has partnered with 9Game, the gaming operation of mobile Internet and services provider UCWeb, on mobile payment solutions. The partnership will enable access to a wider range of audience for 9Game. On the other hand, developers publishing games on 9Game can now collect additional revenue from up to 83 countries.

“We are excited to partner with UCWeb which is among the most successful internet companies to move out of China and go global. The co-operation will enable them to take full advantage of Fortumo’s global carrier connectivity and billing expertise,” said Gewben Wu, General Manager of Fortumo China. “Our carrier billing service lets users without credit cards - a majority of the population in emerging markets- pay from their mobile account balance.”

Not every smartphone user in emerging economies, such as India, Brazil and Russia, could also get their hands on a credit card which is crucial to mobile payments. For instance, in India, one of the largest markets for 9Game, there are about 160 million smartphones versus just 19 million credit cards*. This means carrier billing is able to help game platform and developers to increase their paying user base significantly as any phone owner gets access to payments thanks to Fortumo.

9Game has published over 80,000 apps and is currently serving 200 million downloads per month.

Thanks to the partnership, Fortumo further solidifies its status as the leading provider of carrier billing for emerging markets with a special focus on fast-growth markets in Asia. In the region, Fortumo enjoys very good reputation among merchants and has strong local presence through its offices in China (Beijing, Shanghai), India (Delhi, Mumbai) and Singapore.

Fortumo’s direct carrier billing platform is currently available to 2.1 billion users of 46 different mobile operators in 13 countries in Asia (Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam). Globally, Fortumo covers more than 300 mobile operators in 83 countries, connecting 4.6 billion end-users to its carrier billing solution.