Free-to-play gaming: Finding the right payment methods worldwide. A new report by DigitalRiver shows that companies need to be cognizant of new business models and payment methods worldwide as the market shifts towards free-to-play gaming. According to estimates by SuperData Research, $15.9 billion in revenue will come from boxed game product, while $7.1 billion will come from online and mobile.
Within that space, SuperData expects free-to-play games and virtual goods sales to make up over 50 percent of online gaming revenues by 2017. There's been a recent trend of underperforming MMORPGs switching to the free-to-play model successfully. SuperData estimates that the free-to-play business model is expected to account for nearly 60 percent of all revenue generated by 2015, after reaching parity with subscription business this year.
Virtual goods revenue forecast in key markets Worldwide, free-to-play will continue to show amazing growth, especially in leading markets like China, the United States, Europe, and Japan. Criticism of payment options. Criterias for an online payment solution. Supported Payment Gateways - Chargify. Is there a UK equivalent to Samurai/Stripe/Braintree (a full stack payment merchant/processor) E-Commerce: Aside from Paypal, which credit card processing services do e-commerce companies prefer? Why. An open letter to Stripe « Handcrafted. Update: Stripe responded below, and if you want Stripe in Europe you can leave your name and country here Dear people at Stripe, Stripe sounds lovely and I wanted to add a voice from Europe calling for you guys to hurry up and get over here. The payment processing industry is probably a mess in the US, but I can almost guarantee you it’s even more of a mess over here if you’re not in the UK.
Sounds like a great business opportunity, right? In getting ours set up we went through a 3-month long nightmare/adventure and finally settled on Ogone+Spreedly. I’m sure you know of both. Spreedly is like Stripe in its elegance and simplicity, but it’s not full-stack, which means we’re required to suffer through the terrible UX and customer support of Ogone. I wrote some blog posts about our experiences that I’d like to share with you in an attempt to hopefully convince you to expedite your trip across the Atlantic: Please come to Europe as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully, Update: Stripe responds! Stripe. App55 wants to bring easy payments to every online retailer. One of the reasons that Amazon and Apple are so successful as online retailers is that it’s so easy to buy from them. Once you’re signed up, it’s as simple as a click (or at most, entering your password) to buy anything. Other businesses would no doubt love to be able to make life that simple their customers, and UK startup App55 wants to help them do just that. The company offers a simple piece of code that retailers can place on their sites, enabling customers, once signed up, to simply enter their password every time they want to buy anything. There’s no need to enter card details, a delivery address or anything else that could slow down the purchase process. Manchester-based App55′s CEO and founder, Richard Beaton, says that he isn’t trying to ‘disrupt’ the market – quite the opposite. Things are getting off to a good start for the company.
App55 offers negotiable pricing to its customers, and retailers interested in the service can find out more at App55.com. Accel Puts $34 Million In Online Payments Platform Braintree. It’s no secret that Accel is making major investments in the online payments space, funding both Wonga and e-payments company Yapstone. And today the venture firm is announcing a $34 million Series A investment in Chicago-based online payments company Braintree.
Accel partner Ryan Sweeney will be joining Braintree’s board. Braintree essentially powers and automates online payments for merchants and companies online. The company provides a merchant account, payment gateway, recurring billing, credit card storage, support for mobile and international payments, and PCI Compliance solutions. The company, which has not raised any funding previously, says that 99% of its business comes from word-of-mouth endorsement as it does not have outbound sales reps and its products are virally distributed via the web. Sweeney says that BrainTree hit the ‘sweet spot’ in what Accel was looking for in terms of investing in a disruptive payments company. Accept Payments From Your Site in Minutes With PintPay.
For startups and small businesses operating online, one of the biggest headaches can be setting up the ability to accept payments from one's Website. The latest attempt at relieving this pain point is PintPay, a Web app created by former Scribd developer James Yu, who also authored a JavaScript API for Gmail called Gmailr. PintPay promises to be a hassle-free way of adding payments and recurring payments to one's Website.
It forgoes the need to deal with payment gateways, merchant accounts and coding of any sort in favor of a simple dashboard from which one can set up new products, set their prices, track customer history and configure the design of the payment pages. It's these features that Yu says sets PintPay apart from similar products like Chargify, Recurly and CheddarGetter. Another difference is in its pricing model. PintPay is ideal for charging customers for things like software upgrades or recurring subscriptions, rather than for building out a complex shopping cart. PintPay - Add recurring billing to your site in 5 minutes | PintPay. [Exclu] Levée de fonds de 3 millions d’euros pour Up&Net.
Fondée en 2005 par Florent Guibert et Stéphane Wallart, Up&Net vient de finaliser une levée de fonds de 3 millions d’euros auprès de CM-CIC Capital Privé et CapDécisif Management, investisseur historique dans la société. Up&Net a développé la 1ere plateforme de paiement dématérialisé en marque blanche permettant de faire accepter tout type de moyens de paiement sur des centaines de sites e-commerce. Cette levée de fonds va permettre d’industrialiser cette plateforme, de consolider les équipes techniques et commerciales et de développer de nouveaux produits monétiques en marque blanche en s’appuyant sur une technologie inédite. Pour Alexandre Micouleau, Directeur de Participations de CM-CIC Capital Privé « Up&Net intervient sur un marché en pleine explosion sur laquelle elle apparait comme idéalement positionnée.
La solution technologique proposée, la qualité du management et la traction commerciale dont bénéficie cette jeune société nous ont rapidement convaincu de les accompagner ». Web apps, credit cards, merchant accounts and PayPalPlayNice.ly | PlayNice.ly. There is an inevitable and unavoidable point in the life of many successful web applications where you, as the creator of your amazing app, are going to have to accept your customers’ money.
As fantastic as this is, it is also a complete headache. PlayNice.ly went through this process last year and it is only just getting entirely sorted out. There are bank accounts, merchant accounts, payment gateways and recurring billing systems… and they all have to talk to each other! Actually, this Futurama quote popped into my head on more than one occasion: You can’t just waltz into the Central Bureaucracy. This is going to take you a few months to get set up, but the only task which will really consume your time is integrating the billing system into your app. But why not use PayPal? PayPal has the potential to simplify this whole process considerably. We didn’t go with PayPal for a few reasons, but really came down to the fact that we just didn’t trust them with our startup’s revenue stream.
Report: PayPal’s Express Checkout Helps Bump Merchant Sales By 18 Percent. Online Payment Systems & Credit Card Payment Processing Services by Braintree Payment Solutions. Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud: Braintree. Braintree’s Bryan Johnson will answer your questions in the comments section. In 2003, Bryan Johnson (right) was hired for a commission-only job selling credit card services to businesses. “I was broke,” says Johnson. “The job was brutal. Business owners were tired of the industry’s deception and trickery and didn’t hesitate when given an opportunity to vent.” Johnson quickly excelled, though. But by 2007, Johnson was sick of working for a big corporation. He started figuring out what it would take to do his own thing. He took a few days off work and flew out to Utah, where his old customers resided. Premium, not freemium Early on, Johnson decided to stay away from the freemium model so popular among tech companies.
So Braintree went the opposite route and charged a premium. Who are the customers Braintree decided to write off? Revenue growth The formula is working so far. Johnson is quick to note the difference between Braintree and other emerging payment companies. Visit Braintree.