Netsize Smart Application Billing enables Application Stores to use operator based billing to charge for application downloads and usage, and permits charging from the mobile application itself.

“Reaching the largest consumer audience and making it easy to buy content are the key success factors for Application Stores. With Smart Application Billing they reach 1.3 billion consumers globally, and consumers can conveniently purchase applications and application extensions via their mobile operator phone bill in both Pay per Use and Subscription business models,” says Stanislas Chesnais, Chairman and CEO, Netsize.

“Our Application Store customers observe an increase of their revenues by 400% as soon as they add operator based billing. Having an alternative for credit card billing clearly removes an obstacle in the purchasing process.” He adds, “On Application Store visits that use a mobile device over a Wi-Fi connection we record a 30% increase in payment transactions. It proves the business case for operator based billing as a successful internet payment method.”

Smart Application Billing uniquely combines three operator based billing methods: Direct Operator Billing, Premium SMS Messaging, and WAP Billing. Depending on the characteristics of the consumer’s network operator Smart Application Billing dynamically proposes the preferred billing method to the application. Direct Operator Billing and Premium Messaging allow the user to make the payment while remaining in the application. WAP Billing is used when the other methods are not available. The user makes the payment outside of the application on a mobile internet payment page.

Direct Operator Billing is the billing method where an installed application on a mobile handset initiates a billing transaction via Netsize directly to the user’s mobile network operator.

Netsize is the delivering operator billing solutions to some of the largest Application Stores. Sony Ericsson has chosen Netsize mPayment for PlayNow™ arena to cover multiple countries in Europe.