At this year’s Social Gaming Summit, I had the chance to sit down with David Marcus, the CEO and founder of Zong, a leading mobile payment provider. In short, they allow players to pay for virtual goods online by simply entering their mobile phone number and having the charges added to their mobile phone bill. They’ve been making waves by working directly with Facebook on several initiatives, including being one of the first to test their Facebook Credits platform, and have spread out to reach 176 carriers in 40 countries with their services. David had a lot of interesting insights about the burgeoning social games and virtual currency market.
[likebox text="If you enjoyed this video, click the like button to let us know!"] David really demonstrates that his company, Zong, is interested in the broader picture of the virtual currency world, and touches on the emerging international market as well as the importance of currencies like Linden Dollars from Second Life. I’ve had a lot of respect for Zong since they arrived on the scene and after talking with David I look forward to more news from the Zong camp.
David Marcus, CEO and Founder of Zong Discusses Mobile Payments from Neil Vidyarthi on Vimeo.
- Below is a summary of some of David’s key ideas.
- Zong allows game and application developers to sell virtual currency by simply allowing users to enter their phone number and have the charge appear on their phone bill
- Zong is part of the Facebook Credits program
- David states that about 60% of their revenues is game-oriented, through virtual worlds, casual games and social games.
- Zong is addressing other verticals and types of content.
- Zong has partnerships with 176 mobile carriers in 40 countries. There are about 2 Billion people within their range, and one of their biggest push for publishers.
- David talks about modified pricing in different regions, and how from his perspective he wants to see social games companies have better pricing modifications for regions.
- One of the biggest regions that Zong is entering is the Asian countries, where there is already an established market and a different set of expectations.
