Online gaming network Mochi Media integrated Zong’s mobile payments platform into its recently launched Mochi Coins microtransaction and distribution platform for Flash Games.

Mochi Media’s new system to access paid content in browser games lets allows developers to put additional content in their games that users can pay for with the Mochi Coins in the their account. Flash developers that have integrated Mochi Coins into their game platforms can now extend Zong’s mobile payment service to gamers anywhere on the Web.

“With the launch of our microtransactions platform in July, Mochi Coins, game developers now have the opportunity to monetize their games through the sales of virtual goods and services,” said Justin Wong, vice president of business development at Mochi Media, San Francisco.

“Our partnership with Zong is a natural fit for the global audience that plays these games, due to their international footprint across 25 countries,” he said. “Not all consumers have credit cards, but many have mobile phones.

“Zong enables us to expand the pie and give these consumers a frictionless payment experience through their mobile phone.”

Virtual goods already represent a multi-billion-dollar market that continues to grow exponentially.
According to comScore, Mochi Media is largest online games property worldwide.

With more than 14,000 Flash games distributed across 30,000 game portals, the Mochi Media games network reaches more than 100 million unique visitors a month.

At launch, consumers could only pay for Mochi Coins through Mochi Media’s Web site using credit cards, PayPal or SuperRewards. Now they can also pay via Zong.

“Zong helps us address two key challenges, global payments and reducing payment friction,” Mr. Wong said. “Due to the popularity of mobile phones around the world and across youth demographics, Zong provides us with a way to enable these audiences to easily transact to purchase virtual goods and services from Mochi Coins games.

“The ease of payment helps us convert otherwise free users into paid users,” he said.

Flash game developers use Mochi Media’s technology for analytics, distribution and monetization via micro-transactions and advertisements in the games that they create.

Once they have created a Mochi Coins game with microtransactions, these games get virally distributed across the Internet and can spread to tens of thousands of Web sites.

For example, one of the top Mochi Coins games is SAS: Zombie Assault 2. If you search for “SAS: Zombie Assault 2” on Google, there are currently more than 350,000 results returned.

“Regardless of where the game is played on any of those 350,000-plus pages, consumers are able to transact and purchase goods from the game,” Mr. Wong said. “Transactions take place securely on our site www.mochigames.com, which showcases the 45-plus Mochi Coins games that we have in our network.”

Mobile payment service provider Zong is used by online gaming and social networking Web sites. Zong is featured in social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, as well as virtual worlds and other online gaming sites such as Gaia Online, IMVU and Outspark.

This year, Zong has processed mobile payments for more than 10 million unique users worldwide
Zong has partnerships with 107 carriers in 25 countries worldwide, so the charges appear on consumers’ phone bill.

Zong is the mobile payments business unit of Echovox, which was founded in 2000.

To pay via the Zong platform, there is no signup or registration needed.

After the first payment, if the user checks the “remember my number” option, next time he or she initiates a payment, a PIN code is automatically sent to his or her phone for verification purposes.

When the consumer types the PIN code on the Zong payment window, the transaction completes.

“This is much easier than a PayPal login that needs to happen in a new window, outside of the gaming experience and that takes much longer to complete,” said David Marcus, CEO of Zong, Palo Alto, CA. “Mochi needs to enable a large user base of gamers to pay for its virtual currency.

“Credit cards don’t perform well in immersive game environment as the checkout process is too disruptive,” he said. “Zong offers the best conversion, due to its simplicity and frictionless experience.

“It was a natural choice for Mochi.”