Mobile commerce for a co-branding project between the e-book service LitRes and the mobile operator Tele2

Summary
Integration of a co-branding project between the e-book service LitRes and the mobile operator Tele2, including subscription-based payment and mobile account billing (DCB) setup.

Background
Since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, many online services have experienced a significant increase in users, including e-book sales. According to LitRes, in 2020 demand for digital publications on the Android platform increased by almost 50% in monetary terms, and for audiobooks by more than 40%. Taking advantage of this growing market, PayGate, in collaboration with LitRes, proposed to the Tele2 operator to expand its services by adding a subscription to LitRes' e-book and audiobook catalog

Task
To provide Tele2 subscribers with access to LitRes' vast e-book library through a favorable subscription and the ability to pay for the service using their mobile account.

Implementation
Typically, such projects are implemented on a "White label" basis, where the partner brand does not advertise itself. In this case, Tele2 and LitRes, on the contrary, demonstrated full transparency and increased their mutual media influence on the audience, which is now a good precedent for other similar cooperations. Since PayGate had already had years of experience working with mobile operators in Kazakhstan, this greatly simplified the integration and implementation of payment tools. Technically, the subscription is implemented using USSD commands. USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a standard service in GSM networks that allows interactive communication between a network subscriber and an operator using short messages. For the user, the subscription is arranged according to the following algorithm:

1. The subscriber dials the command – *206#

2. Chooses the desired package

3. Receives an SMS with a link to the application, login, and password

4. Downloads the application and logs in

5. Done! Books are available by subscription

Result
Tele2 subscribers gained access to LitRes' library, which includes more than 250,000 books and 50,000 audiobooks with the ability to register via SMS and pay for the subscription using their mobile account. LitRes and Tele2, with the technical support of PayGate, mutually expanded their customer base and improved their service level by implementing DCB technology.