Halting phone card payments creates new prospects for the gaming industry, as gaming enterprises started co-operating with e-commerce platforms to satisfy the burgeoning demand for game cards. Many experts stated that this is a healthy direction for the market and would ensure long-term stability.

Many gaming enterprises co-operate with e-commerce platforms for game card business

Co-operation with e-commerce platforms

As soon as mobile operators’ decided to halt phone card payments for digital content and in-game purchases, VNG Group brought back Zing cards to pay in its dozens of games. The cards are now on sale at 7,000 dealers over the country. In addition, Zing cards are also distributed through e-commerce platforms, such as Tiki and Sendo.

Garena, one of the region’s leading online game companies, may previously have known mobile operators’ decision, so it quickly entered into a cooperation with many e-commerce platforms, including AirPay, HomePay, WhyPay, and Lazada.

According to thegioitieudung.vn, a director of a gaming enterprise stated in a short time game cards became widely offered on the market, from retail distributors to e-commerce platforms.

Revenues rising at gaming enterprises

VNG Group’s representative said that after mobile operators’ decision to halt payments via phone cards, the revenue from game cards are on a recovering trend.

“We have to try our best to recover the company’s business activities after the mobile operators’ sudden decision. Had mobile operators scheduled halting payments via phone cards, we would have managed our business operation far easier,” added the representative.

Huyen Phuong, marketing director of the MoMo platform, confirmed that recently gaming enterprises’ revenues have been increasing sharply, but concrete data is not available yet as it takes time to compare data before and after April 23, the day mobile operators halted phone card payments.

The right direction

Gaming and digital content enterprises should have started such cooperation earlier to avoid dependence on phone card payments, which carry a 15-16 per cent commission to mobile operators.

“Despite initially facing difficulties, this is an opportunity to strongly develop the digital content segment,” assessed Nguyen Hoang Tuan, marketing director of HT Online Company.

Small- and medium-sized game enterprises may face many difficulties, but they can co-operate with large gaming enterprises to issue common game cards and supply payment services.

This would not only help gaming enterprises in achieving more self-control but would also help authorities in managing the digital content market more effectively as the cooperation between the two sides will be under their supervision.

VIR