While Apple is rolling out Apple Pay around the world, the company is turning to a different payment method in Russia, allowing users to pay for digital purchases without needing a credit card.
Beginning this week, those with Apple accounts in Russia can use their phones to purchase things like books, music and apps simply by typing in their phone number, after which those items will be charged to their monthly bill.
Apple is partnering with Beeline for the new system, with users able to head to the payment information page within their account settings to enable the new option.
"Mobile phone billing is available in Russia for Beeline mobile customers. A verification will be sent to you," says the page.
The deal comes only one month after a similar deal was made in Germany with O2. That was the first deal of its kind for Apple, and at the time, it was unclear if Apple was going to bring the idea to other countries.
The technology itself has been around since the early days of the smartphone, however, it has largely failed to gain customers. Apple's adoption of the tech, however, could breathe new life into it. The reason for the tech failing so far is the fact that carriers generally charge high fees for transactions over their networks. In fact, carriers have previously taken as much as 30 percent as a fee, while credit cards generally only take around two percent.
Carrier rates are, however, lowering, with phone companies partnering with Apple to charge less than 10 percent as a fee, creating an incentive for companies like music services and game curators to reach people using smartphones. Google, for example, has carrier billing agreements in 35 countries through the Google Play Store. Facebook has agreements in 60 countries for transactions through its mobile store. While Apple is late to the game, it's likely that it will look to push agreements into as many more countries as possible.
Via: CNBC
