As seen on TV – Direct Carrier Billing goes beyond the mobile

Direct carrier billing (DCB) is traditionally and primarily associated with billing both digital and recently physical content through mobile phones. This, of course, has its reason as the number of mobile users is predicted to reach 4.77 billion by the end of 2017, and to soar to 5.07 billion by 2019. In our sphere, this translates to 70 percent of the world’s population have a potential payment method in their pocket, every day. However, the attraction of the payment method goes beyond.

Although according to the stats of known source eMarketer, mobile accounted for more than 63% of the entire digital spend in 2016, one of the clear advantages of DCB is that merchants can offer the billing option across a range of connected devices, including phones (smartphones and feature phones), computers, tablets, and Smart TVs.

The liaison of Gaming and Smart TVs through DCB

The Gaming industry, already worth 32 billion USD last year, remains to continuously balloon.  Data volume of global online gaming traffic anticipated to rise from 915 petabytes per month 2016 is to 10,147 in 2021, a figure sheer inapprehensible, but not ignorable.

The Smart TV penetration in the UK has risen 26 percent in the last three years, and estimated to reach 38 percent in 2017.  A milestone for carrier billings deployment beyond the mobile was Microsoft’s introduction to Xbox back in 2016, a true “Cinderella Moment” for the Gaming industry as carrier billing did and has since then proved to be the perfect match for both merchants and users alike, a seamless, quick and easy payment option for games, upgrades and in-app purchases.

Games remain to shift away from dedicated consoles or computers, taking a seat in people’s living rooms, to their TVs. The bellow timeline displays the devices used to play digital video and computer games in the UK from 2009 to 2016. In 2016, 19 percent of users reported playing games using a mobile phone, a seven percent decrease compared to 2015, whilst Smart TVs are said to be heavily responsible for the number of gamers opting for alternatives.