Quicker Payments, More Sales in 4 European Countries

July 1, 2009 by Andreas Pizsa

Our experience shows that shorter call durations lead to higher sales volumes for merchants. A local presence with domestic phone numbers is the key to making calls significantly shorter: where it takes 5 minutes to complete a payment with an international call, a customer can dial a domestic number to pay the same amount within only 30 seconds – done!

This month, we are making these quicker phone payments available to more than 8 million consumers in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Macedonia. The numbers in these countries have already gone online on July 1st and you can start using them immediately: if you have made your products available in “All Countries” in the Control Center, there’s nothing you need to change; otherwise, please log in now and simply click the respective checkboxes.

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A Fresh and Friendly Voice for German Customers

July 1, 2009 by Andreas Pizsa

With the increasing number of calls we’re processing globally, we want to make sure that everyone who calls us remembers having a positive, friendly experience when paying with us. This month we’ve asked Anja, a female speaker from Germany, to record new announcements for our German callers  - and we’re more than pleased with the results. But just hear it yourself – it’s a pleasure to listen to Anja, even if you don’t speak German :)

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Hungary Lifting Sales Tax to 25%

July 1, 2009 by Andreas Pizsa

Starting July 1st, Hungary is raising their VAT (sales tax) from 20% to 25%. Merchants who sell to Hungarian customers may want to adapt their prices accordingly in order to keep the same payouts. The easiest adjustment is to multiply your current end user price with 1.05.

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Meet daopay at GamesCom Cologne and Games Convention Leipzig 2009

July 1, 2009 by Andreas Pizsa

We’re preparing our attendance at two upcoming Game shows in Germany: Games Convention in Leipzig and GamesCom in Cologne – and we’d love to meet with you! We’ve set aside a quiet room where we can have a cup of coffee or cool drink and share our experiences with online payments and how businesses like yours can grow and become even more successful.

Interested? Schedule a meeting with us and save the dates :)

Games Convention Leipzig
July 31st – August 2nd, 2009
http://www.gamesconvention.com

GamesCom Cologne
August 19th – 23rd, 2009
http://www.gamescom.de

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Welcome to the updated Control Center!

July 1, 2009 by Andreas Pizsa

We have given the Control Center a little – long overdue – polish. It’s the first step in an ongoing process to improve the overall look and friendliness of our interface. No worries: you’ll still easily find your way through all the functions you need – everything stayed at its place, so you don’t need to learn anything new.

You’ll notice that we’ve added three new elements to the welcome page:

  • Earnings overview. A convenient chart showing the current month’s
    total earnings in your account currency.
  • Last and Next Payout. Your last and next payout dates and amounts,
    so you’ll always know when you’ll receive your funds.
  • News. Current news and information about changes or upcoming events.

What’s also new is that we’re now showing a default view when you click on a menu item.

We hope you find these changes helpful and appreciate your feedback and comments!

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4 simple & effective security tips for mobile payments

June 25, 2009 by Andreas Pizsa

Phone payments are really taking off, and as they’re becoming more popular and more widely accepted, it’s also more tempting for fraudsters to try to trick you.

We monitor fraud attemps very closely to make phone payments a safe and reliable option for both consumers and merchants, and here are a few tips what you can do to protect yourself from unwanted surprises. These tips are very easy to implement and, in most cases, won’t even require you to change your habits ;)

These tips apply if you use a payment method that doesn’t require a credit card or bank account, such as daopay, where purchases get charged to your phone bill.

1. Activate your PIN code

This one is pretty obvious and yet so effective. Your phone a mobile ATM, and so you should protect your ATM with a PIN. See your phone’s manual how it’s done. If you can’t find your manual, try googling it, e.g. google “sony ericsson w595 manual pdf”.

(Got an an iPhone? Follow this link to see how it’s done.)

2. Use a pre-paid or pay-as-you-go plan.

Virtually all mobile operators offer pre-paid plans. Think of these as debit cards for mobile payments. It’s a great option for children to learn how to use their phone responsibly without restricting their freedom to choose.

3. Ask you operator for a monthly spending limit.

Some operators allow to specify spending limits; this way you enjoy the advantages of monthly billing, with the benefits of responsible and controlled spending.

4. Monitor phone charges

Most operators offer online tools which let you control your phone charges in real time. Some are even able to send you an SMS once your spendings reached a certain point.

Got a tip you want to share with us? Please post them in the comments!

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7 Mobile and Micropayment Myths Debunked

June 19, 2009 by Andreas Pizsa

Myth #1: Micropayments don’t work
Fact #1: People worldwide earn a decent living with micropayments. (iTunes AppStore… hello?!)

There may be different opinions on whether micropayments work or not, but the facts speak a clear language: creative individuals as well as large companies are earning decent incomes with micropayments.

  • Jeff Smith has made a cool million in 2008 with $1 and $2 apps that he sells on Apple’s AppStore.
  • Stever Demeter pulled in $250,000 in just two months with a $3 iPhone game.
  • facebook is making an estimated 15-30 million Dollars a year with $1 gifts that they sell on their platform.
  • And last but not least, daopay’s customers are processing millions of transactions every year in the range between $1 and $10, with conversion rates of up to 76%.

Myth #2. Mobile Payments involve high fees and are too expensive
Fact #2: Mobile Payments compare very well to other payment options

Credit Card companies take about $0.35 per transaction, plus a 3% fee. But don’t let the “3%” irritate you: if you sell a product for $1, that’s a whopping 38% for fees. Which means you get to keep significantly less than with the AppStore or daopay (see #1)

Myth #3: Mobile Payments users need a credit card
Fact #3: Mobile Payments work without credit cards

Paying online usually involves credit cards or bank accounts. But credit cards aren’t equally popular everywhere. Many people also don’t feel comfortable sharing their perosnal information over the net. And then there’s people who simply don’t have a credit card.

Mobile phone payments, on the other hand, only require a simple telephone if done right.

Myth #4: Mobile Payments work only with Mobile Phones
Fact #4: Phone Payments also work with landline phones

Mobile payments, micropayments, phone payments… quite confusing! Most mobile payment operators really mean “mobile phone” when they say “mobile phone”. In addition to that, daopay works with landline AND mobile phones. Just dial a number, hold the line, and you’re all set.

Myth #5: It’s Mobile Payment versus Credit Cards
Fact #5: Mobile Payments are a complementary payment option.

If you sell fruits, some customers will want apples and some will want oranges. Maybe you’ll sell more apples than oranges, but at the end of the day, you’ll be able to serve more customers if you offer a broad range of choices. It’s the same with payment methods. You can simply serve more customers if you give them more choices.

Myth #6: Only a few freaks use their phone to pay online
Fact #6: Phone Payments reach 40x as many users as Apple’s AppStore

Let’s just compare the numbers:

Visa cards 1 500 000 000
AppStore users 75 000 000
Phones 4 000 000 000

And since everyone can use phone payments without signing up for an account first (not to mention going through the credit card approval process…), you really are able to collect money from anyone, anywhere.

Myth #7: Mobile payments are just for large companies
Fact #7: Mobile Payments are very easy to integrate for everyone.

If you have a friend or collegue who knows how to work with HTML and e-Mail, you got all you need. It’s easy to get started, and it’s easy and inexpensive to find someone to help you do more tighter integration. Anyone who has ever integrated PayPal can intergate daopay.

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FAQ: Where’s my money?

May 12, 2009 by Andreas Pizsa

As you might probably know, our standard payout terms are End-Of-Month + 60 days, in some countries it’s even +90 days, which, without doubt, is a pretty long time if you’re eager to receive your hard-earned money. I know from some support e-mails and  personal discussions that to some folks, it appears as if we’re keeping our merchants’ money idling on our bank accounts to make a buck from the interest. Nothing is further from the truth, and I’d like to shed a little light on this issue:

We would love to pay merchants at the end of each month without any additional delays and we are always working on ways to reduce payout delays as much as possible. There are a couple of obstacles though that we need to resolve, and while some issues are easier to solve than others, a few are just unchangeable facts of life, two of them being fraud and defaults.

Without getting into too many of the messy details: in almost all countries, governments try to reduce the risk of fraud with Consumer Protection Laws. These laws usually allow consumers to reverse or object transactions within a period of 40 or more days. During this period, a consumer can demand his or her money back, which means that even though the recipient might have received money on their bank account, they can’t be sure that they can actually keep it. In other words, phone carriers can not release funds to us until this period has passed and all funds are safe. This is the same reason why credit card companies usually pay merchants after 60 days.

Summary

  • Consumer Protection Laws allow 40 days or more for chargebacks
  • Carriers pay us after they have received payments and the Consumer Protection period has passed
  • Once we’ve received the funds from carriers, we pay merchants as soon as possible
  • daopay pays out almost as quickly as most leading credit card processors

Zero-Chargebacks Guarantee

The positive side of all of this is that we are able to employ a zero-chargeback guarantee in most countries. You don’t have to handle any of the administrative and financial hassles of chargebacks yourself – it’s been taken care of for you.

I hope this helps clarify things a little. The telecom business is utterly complex – just remember how difficult it is to choose a phone plan. We try to do our best to shield merchants and developers from all this complexity in 200 countries and hundreds of providers. Of course, we’re always open for suggestions. If you have feedback or ideas how we can effectively reduce payout delays, please get in touch with us – we’d like to hear from you and welcome your comments :)

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What we’re working on behind the scenes

November 3, 2008 by Andreas Pizsa

We’ll be introducing several new features in December, and I’d like to give you a sneak preview of what’s coming. The most visible change is going to be our new payment interface, which you can completely customize on screen to better match your web site’s look and feel. Better on-screen instructions for SMS payments will help consumers better understand and use SMS payments. Minors Protection enables merchants to use a voluntary spending limit per user in order to prevent future chargebacks. And last but not least, new languages both on the screen and on the phone to better serve global customers!

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Fine-tuning prices for local currencies and tariffs

November 3, 2008 by Andreas Pizsa

Doing business globally introduces some subtle complexities, and one of them surely is dealing with different currencies, exchange rates and phone tariff schemes. While you don’t have to know any of the details to use daopay for your web site, learning about them lets you fine-tune your business a little.

In your account settings, you can choose from one of 25 currencies in which we will remit your monthly payments. For products, you specify the price in your account currency, and daopay computes the local equivalents; so EUR 5,00 becomes CAD 7,84 in Canada.

While 7,84 is an exact computation based on the daily conversion rate, it’s a somewhat weird look price. That’s why we’ve introduced two additional price finding methods: Dutch and Rounded. Dutch prices are those you’re used to see at the supermarket, like 9,99 instead of 10,00.  Rounded pricing, on the other hand, rounds to the next amount that ends in either 50 or 00, like 10,00 instead of 9,99. The result with both methods is that no matter what the price is, it gets converted to a local currency and it gets rounded so that it looks good.

Today we’re introducing a new option that lets you specify a product’s fixed price in a currency other than your account currency. That’s very convenient if you don’t want a consumer’s price to depend on a daily exchange rate. It’s also convenient if you want to optimize a price for a certain tariff scheme or benefit from Drop Calls (per-call pricing).

In order to use this feature, you create a new product and choose from one of 25 currencies that we support.

Say you sell 100 pieces of Gold (GOLD100) for EUR 2,50 and would like to charge CAD 5,00 in Canada. You’d create new product (GOLD100CA), choose Canadian Dollars (CAD) as the product’s currency, and enter “5″ as price. In a next step you’d change your web site to link to the Canadian product for Canadian customers, and you’re set – country specifc, fixed prices!

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