BlueVia, the global developer program of wireless giant Telefónica, today announced the release of a new billing API that lets developers and merchants link in-app payments to mobile operator bills without additional authentication. BlueVia also selected direct carrier biller BOKU Inc. to support its in-app payments.

"In-app payment is a hot topic within the developer community, as all the research suggests it can have a high positive impact on revenue,” said José Valles, Head of BlueVia, in today's announcement.

By selecting BOKU as a payment partner, BlueVia is giving BOKU the ability to offer digital merchants and content producers billing access to Telefónica's subscriber base. According to today's release, Telefónica has 295 million subscribers worldwide.

This is obviously good news for BOKU. Access to 295 million subscriber bills means BOKU is an attractive payment partner for developers and merchants looking to monetize their content and provide users and consumers a convenient way to pay for digital goods and services. 

What's more, Telefónica has a large presence in markets in Latin America and Europe where direct carrier billing is prevalent and provides a payment option to consumers who may lack access to traditional financial tools like bank accounts or debit and credit cards.

"Mobile operator billing offers a way to charge for goods and services using financial relationships that in some markets are more prevalent than credit cards," said Valles.

This is good news for developers too. Access to Telefónica's subscribers through BlueVia and BOKU means they now have the ability to quickly and easily deliver their content to a new market. BlueVia has, in effect, made the process for collecting revenue, regardless of a consumer's mobile device or operating system, much simpler.

"By augmenting the BlueVia API program with BOKU's operator billing technology, Telefónica, through BlueVia, is opening up a tremendous revenue opportunity to developers all over the world across multiple platforms and operating systems," said James Patmore, managing director for EMEA for BOKU.

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