Mobile Payments in Central & Eastern EuropeWhite paper by Fortumo

Introduction

Mobile Payments in Central & Eastern Europe

These countries combined are almost equal to the US in terms of population but often fly under the radar of web and mobile developers. Since most users in this region do not have access to traditional payment methods (i.e. credit cards) to make payments online, Central & Eastern Europe has significantly higher piracy rates than the global average. Therefore one of the key ways to unlock revenue from this region is to provide users with a payment method that is accessible to a majority of the population.

Fortumo’s Central & Eastern European white paper gives a high-level overview of the biggest markets in the region as well as insights on user spending behaviour, device preferences and local distribution & payment channels. Data presented in the white paper has been taken from Fortumo’s cross-platform mobile payment solution and Android in-app purchasing SDK as well as external public sources of information.

Markets Overview

Phone penetration

Credit card penetration

Russia 155% 17%

Ukraine 126% 66%

Population

146M

43M

Poland 123% 17%

Romania 108% 11%

38M

20M

Czech Republic 136% 21%

Hungary 116% 13%

10M

10M

Azerbaijan 78% 3%

Belarus 109% 61%

10M

9M

GDP per capita ($)

Digital gaming spend (2014)

Average ageCountry

Bulgaria 140% 14%

Serbia 139% 8%

24,298

8,651

23,273

17,440

27,347

23,236

17,028

17,623

16,518

12,465

$1180M

$68M

$311M

N/A

$147M

$100M

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

7M

7M

38.5

39.7

38.2

38.1

40.4

41.3

28.5

38.8

41.6

41.1

This white paper gives an overview of the mobile payments landscape in Central & Eastern Europe. It covers 10 of the biggest countries in the region by population: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria and Serbia.

User Spending Behaviour in Central & Eastern Europe

1,79

1,29

3,72

2,5

3,5

3,61

4,41

2,47

2,98

2,69

3,02Russia

Ukraine

Poland

Romania

Czech Republic

Hungary

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Bulgaria

Serbia

2,21

1,41

3,73

3,32

2,62

3,86

3,92

2,4

2,78

2,82

Russia

Ukraine

Poland

Romania

Czech Republic

Hungary

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Bulgaria

Serbia

Monthly ARPPU (USD)Avg transaction (USD)

Web Payments(6 months average, September 2014 - February 2015)

In-App Payments(6 months average, September 2014 - February 2015)

2,73

6,05

5,51

5,96

6,62

10,14

6,75

8,01

5,8

4,14

2,97

6,84

7,27

5,8

7,61

9,39

6,15

7,04

5,07

Monthly ARPPU (USD)Avg transaction (USD)

Mobile Payments in Central & Eastern Europe

Platform Preference in Central & Eastern Europe

Unlike other emerging regions where users often get their first access to the internet through a smartphone, CEE has a high penetration of traditional devices for internet access. This is also illustrated in their spending behaviour as a significant portion of payments processed through the Fortumo platform are from users on desktop devices.

Desktop TabletMobileCountry

8.44%

9.01%

6.51%

2.95%

11.58%

7.13%

5.63%

3.20%

3.00%

19.78%

33.01%

37.34%

69.17%

26.24%

64.40%

64.52%

54.37%

60.12%

24.98%

36.67%

58.55%

53.65%

23.42%

70.81%

24.02%

28.34%

40.00%

36.68%

72.02%

43.55%

Russia

Ukraine

Poland

Romania

Czech Republic

Hungary

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Bulgaria

Serbia

Mobile Payments in Central & Eastern Europe

Language & Localization in Central & Eastern EuropeIf the user understands English enough to navigate their phone or payment window, they will most likely be able to also understand your service, game or app. Keep in mind that the language used needs to be understandable even for users who don’t speak the language: using simple terms such as “Store” and “Buy” helps with this. It’s also a good idea to visualize the main functions related to purchasing (e.g. a shopping cart icon for your in-game store).

In terms of localization, Russian is the most popular second language in most of the countries covered in this white paper. If there is no capability available to translate your service or game into all local language, effort should at least be made to have Russian as an alternative language option available in addition to English. Regional Russian-language social networks are also popular in the region so you should consider integration of platforms like Odnoklassniki, My World and VKontakte.

Mobile Payments in Central & Eastern Europe

Browser language: web payments(6 months average, September 2014 - February 2015)

Device language: in-app payments(6 months average, September 2014 - February 2015)

Russia

94% Russian

5% English

1% other

Ukraine

86% Russian

9% Ukrainian

5% other

Poland

94% Polish

4% English

2% other

Romania

58% Romanian

37% English

5% other

Czech Republic

86% Czech

10% English

4% other

Hungary

88% Hungarian

10% English

2% other

Azerbaijan

56% Russian

19% Azerbaijan

8% Turkish

7% English

10% other

Belarus

96% Russian

2% English

2% other

Bulgaria

79% Bulgarian

17% English

4% other

Serbia

50% Serbian

39% English

3% Croatian

8% other

Russia

98% Russian

2% other

Ukraine

71% Russian

12% Ukrainian

7% English

10% other

Poland

96% Polish

4% other

Romania

84% Romanian

9% English

7% other

Czech Republic

95% Czech

5% other

Hungary

97% Hungarian

3% other

Azerbaijan

50% Russian

32% Turkish

9% Azerbaijani

9% other

Belarus

93% Russian

7% other

Bulgaria

83% Bulgarian

11% English

6% other

Serbia

80% Serbian

16% English

4% other

Testing your appTest your app! There are over 18 thousand Android devices out there but you don’t need to cover all of them: testing your app on a few very different (screen size & hardware specs) will improve chances of as many users as possible being able to play it. Cutting off a portion of users for using an older version of the OS or a device with a smaller screen could have a big impact on revenue - especially in emerging markets like Central & Eastern Europe.

Jelly Bean 48%(4.1–4.3.1)

KitKat 38,50%(4.4–4.4.4)

Gingerbread 5,7%(2.3–2.3.7)

Ice Cream Sandwich 4,7%(4.0–4.0.4)

Lollipop 3,1%(5.0–5.0.2)

Android OS versions & screen sizes in the CEE region:

26,2% - 800x480

13,8% - 1920x1080

13,5% - 1280x720 8,4% - 960x540

7,1% - 854x480

31% - Others

Screensizes

Mobile Payments in Central & Eastern Europe

Most popular brands:

Galaxy S4, Galaxy S5, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Trend Plus, Galaxy SII, Galaxy S III Mini, Galaxy S4 Mini, Galaxy S3 Neo, Sony Xperia Z1, Sony Xperia M2

Most popular devices:

Alternative Payments & Distributionin Central & Eastern Europe

While almost everyone in the U.S. has a credit card, a number of issues prevent the spread of credit cards in growing economies (identity and reputation management, debt enforcement, informal economies), and they’re not going to be solved anytime soon. Instead, people rely on alternative payment methods to conduct transactions online.

In addition to carrier billing with Fortumo, integration of alternative payment methods can be considered for users in the Central & Eastern European region:

For Android apps, it’s also important to consider alternative distribution channels beside Google Play. Many Android smartphone owners in the Central & Eastern European region download apps from these alternative Android app stores:

Mobogeniehttp://www.mobogenie.com http://content.samsung.com

Samsung Galaxy Appshttp://slideme.org

SlideMEYandex Storehttp://store.yandex.com

Opera Mobile Storehttp://apps.opera.com

QIWIhttps://qiwi.ru

WebMoneyhttp://www.wmtransfer.com

PaysafeCardhttps://www.paysafecard.com

Przelewy24http://www.przelewy24.pl

PayUhttp://www.en.payu.pl

Kyivstar App Clubhttp://appclub.com.ua

Yandex Moneyhttps://money.yandex.ru

bd@fortumo.comhttps://twitter.com/fortumohttps://facebook.com/fortumo

Fortumo allows any merchant to set up payment processing for web and mobile services, games or apps. Users with a mobile phone are then able to make one-click payments using Fortumo without the need for a credit card: payments are charged to their mobile operator bill instead. Fortumo supports payments in 88 countries through 350 mobile operators. Founded in 2007, Fortumo has offices in Estonia, US, India, China and Singapore and is backed by Intel Capital and Greycroft Partners. Get started with mobile payments at https://fortumo.com.

About Fortumo