Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Qpass Inc. has announced it is the first processor to reach the $1 billion mark in premium digital content. The Seattle-based company, which produces billing software primarily for mobile carriers, says it hit the milestone Jan. 11 and has now exceeded 400 million paid downloads on its platform. While not releasing its volume for 2005, the company says it processed almost three times as many transactions last year as in 2004, with a daily average of $2 million in value. Ring tones still account for the bulk of transactions, at 56%, Qpass says. But the company adds other so-called premium content, including mobile games, video, and downloadable applications from such sites as eBay, Mapquest, and MobiRadio, were the fastest-growing categories last year. Mobile games now account for one-fifth of transactions, followed by graphics (15%), and video (2%). Another trend, Qpass says, is the tendency among cellular carriers to manage content sales for third party brands?so-called off-portal services. These transactions accounted for more than 30% of premium-content transactions at year's end, up from 6% at the end of 2004. “Off-portal revenue growth continued at an explosive pace in 2005,” the company says in a statement. Off-portal providers include VeriSign, Buongiorno, and Zingy, the company says. All told, Qpass claims to serve more than 175 million mobile-phone subscribers and in excess of 60 million users of web-portal, Wi-Fi, and VoIP services worldwide for such carriers as Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile International, Sprint, US Cellular, and Skype.
