Mobile payment enabler Union Mobile Pay is working with Syniverse to enable banking institutions across China to enhance their customer loyalty programs by providing premium cardholders with free, unlimited Wi-Fi access on their mobile devices when traveling to Taiwan and Thailand.
The collaboration allows banking institutions to sponsor the cost of their cardholder’s access to the Internet via Wi-Fi so that users do not incur data costs while roaming.
Union Mobile Pay says that the rise of mobile payments has increased its consumers’ needs for Internet connectivity anywhere they go to make purchases, and that the collaboration with Syniverse and financial intuitions to provide unlimited, free Internet connectivity ensures that banking customers are easily able to make purchases on their mobile devices when outside of their home countries.
The sponsored Wi-Fi collaboration is part of a trial that Union Mobile Pay is offering cardholders of its banking partners in China. The banking institutions are able to use the free Wi-Fi offers as a way to enhance customer loyalty by offering it as a frequent banking reward, and Union Mobile Pay is able to drive increased use of its mobile payment service that relies on connectivity.
Behind-the-scenes, Syniverse uses its Wi-Fi Services Suite and network of relationships with mobile service providers to coordinate Wi-Fi connectivity for the trial to more than 100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across Taiwan and Thailand.
Users download a Syniverse-hosted Wi-Fi mobile app that connects them automatically to nearby hotspots after a one-time password authentication is completed. The Wi-Fi solution then monitors each user’s data consumption to manage the clearing and financial settlement between Union Mobile Pay and Wi-Fi providers.
Syniverse identified the opportunity for consumer brands and mobile service providers in Asia to work together to unlock annual revenues of as much as $6 billion by 2019 through sponsoring the costs of consumers’ mobile-data services. Among the major findings, the survey results show that consumers’ consumption of content can increase by 40% when users have an incentive to use services.
“Consumers want to use more data and enjoy richer mobile experiences, and brands and operators are just beginning to realize the revenue opportunity and customer-engagement benefit sponsored access can deliver,” said George Guo, vice president and managing director, Enterprise Solutions Group, Asia Pacific Sales, Syniverse. “The key to unlocking this potential will be the ability of brands and operators to work together, and our agreement with Union Mobile Pay is a perfect example of the beginning of this kind of collaboration.”
Syniverse’s agreement with Union Mobile Pay builds on a number of recent accomplishments in Asia. These include providing messaging reach to Line, one of the fastest-growing mobile voice, messaging, entertainment and social networking applications, and also helping optimize mobile customer engagement for Amazon China.
Additionally, Syniverse recently launched the world’s first high-definition VoLTE (Voice over LTE) roaming service and deploying mobile messaging platforms with Tencent in China and Bigo in Singapore.
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