Leading mobile payments provider Fortumo just announced its foray into Indian market. The most developer-friendly mobile payments provider has launched the mobile payment service by entering into partnerships with four leading mobile operators in the country.

As part of the partnership, Fortumo’s direct carrier billing (DCB) will now support four leading mobile provider in India: Vodafone, Airtel, Idea, and Tata Docomo. These operators have a combined market of 530 million subscribers or 61 percent market share, making it the largest coverage of any mobile payment provider in the country.

The mobile payment service works on Windows and Android phones and as well as on new Windows 8 apps and games.

“India has historically been a tough market to crack for mobile payment providers due to outdated premium SMS technologies being widely used, making payment integration for mobile game and app developers complicated. Rather than relying on old technologies which were meant for selling ringtones and wallpapers, Fortumo connects to operators directly through direct carrier billing. In this scenario, users do not need to send any messages. This makes payments faster, in turn increasing conversion and revenue for developers,” said Gerri Kodres, SVP Business Development and Carrier Relations at Fortumo, in the press release on the subject.

According to a report, there are 67 million smartphone subscribers in India in 2013. The subscribers’ rate is increasing at the rate of 52 percent year-on-year, making the industry more and more promising for the app developers.

Mobile payments to the masses

India is expected to surpass USA to take second place after China in the number of mobile subscribers in coming years. The subcontinent’s smartphones adoption is increasing and number of smartphone sold in Q1 of 2013 grew by 74% with Android dominating the smartphone market at a 90% market share. At the same time, the Indian mobile gaming market is estimated to reach $574 million by 2016.

With coverage in 80 countries, Fortumo’s made in-app purchasing more accessible than ever, which is good news for developers as they will get the option to offer app users the use of their mobile bill to reflect payments. This is especially important in emerging markets like Brazil, China, and India where credit card penetration is especially low compared to mobile phone penetration. The company has previously announced direct carrier billing partnerships with some of the largest mobile operator groups in the world, including China Mobile, Telefónica and Telenor.

China and India are already the largest market in the world of Android, but western developers are trying to enter the market with a traditional payment solutions such as credit cards that are available to only a few users, and the market is very fragmented. Billing mobile operator can be up to 75% of all profits from the Android application in China. Now Fortumo allows international developers take advantage of widely available methods of payment in these countries.

Fortumo Mobile applications are built using the latest HTML5 technology and operate on devices with Android, Windows 8 and Windows Phone, giving mobile developers to easily monetize their users globally and with a more broadly accessible, higher converting payment method than credit cards. Fortumo system can be useful for software developers and application owners of social networks and content creators to generate revenue for the products or services.