Click&Buy Will Expand Online Payment Options to Phone Bills April 1

Webpay Inc.'s Click&Buy payment service, which handles largely digital-content sales, will begin processing transactions on consumers' phone bills April 1. The service will work with two so-far unnamed telecommunications carriers that together cover 55% of U.S. land-line subscribers, says Fabian G. Siegel, president and chief executive of Webpay, which has been processing digital-content payments in Europe for six years and began seriously courting U.S. merchants and users late in 2004 (Digital Transactions News, July 14, 2005). “We're very excited about the April 1 launch,” says Siegel, who hopes the ability to charge payments to phone bills will be accepted by consumers as a convenient and secure alternative to credit cards and prepaid accounts for online transactions. “We've had the phone-bill payment option in other markets, [including] the U.K. and Switzerland, and some of those markets have had great acceptance,” he says. “We want to promote Click&Buy as a payment alternative for the Internet.” By working with Billing Concepts Inc., a San Antonio, Texas-based clearing house for phone companies, Webpay hopes to add more carriers over time. Billing Concepts, says Siegel, “can get in front of the right people.” The introduction of the phone-bill option comes later than the company originally expected. Siegel last summer said it would be in place by September. Helping matters now is that European parent company Webpay AG last month received $23 million from London-based venture firm 3i Group. Click&Buy, which is targeting publishers, game developers, and sellers of online songs, already processes credit card and automated clearing house transactions. It plans to add cash payments, with users exchanging cash for vouchers in retail locations, by the end of June. The service processes for 87 U.S. merchants, up from 30 last July, with VoIP provider Skype and digital-game vendor Electronic Arts Inc. among the most recent recruits. Its worldwide merchant base numbers 4,000. On the user side, it boasts a global account base of 6 million. Siegel refuses to say how many are in the U.S., though six months ago the service claimed 50,000. He says the goal is 1 million by mid-year. “We're right on track to get there,” he says. To reach smaller sellers, Click&Buy offers to handle provisioning and bundling of content through a shopping-cart service it provides. It is also working on a Web-based application that will allow sellers to sign up for Clic&Buy online within five minutes, Siegel says. Merchant fees are 2.9% plus 30 cents, though transactions under $2 carry a tariff of 5% plus a nickel. The fees, which have changed since last year, cover all services. Transactions are free to consumers, though Siegel says the cash option will carry a consumer fee to account for the cut of revenue Click&Buy will share with point-of-sale merchants whose stores will act as collection points and distributors of Click&Buy vouchers. Users will be able pay for content online by entering their voucher numbers.