Frequently Asked Questions
Consumer Experience
Q. Does the consumer need a bank account or credit card?
A. No. The consumer only needs an active mobile phone with text messaging to make a payment.
Q. What does the consumer need to do to complete a payment?
A. It depends on the consumer’s country and carrier but he will either need
to type in a 4-digit PIN code that we send in the form of an SMS text message
or reply “Y” to the SMS text message that we send to him.
Instructions will be in the text message itself.
Q. Does the consumer need to register or create a new password?
A. No. No registration is required -- no new password to remember.
Q. How is the consumer charged?
A. It depends on the carrier and the country, but the description will always contain either “Zong” or “Echovox”.
Q. What if the mobile account is prepaid or pay-as-you-go?
A. The charge is deducted from the balance on the phone account at the time of the transaction.
Q. What happens if the user is in an area with poor connectivity and they don’t receive their text message immediately?
A. The text message is valid for up to 24 hours depending on the country and carrier, so they will still be able to complete the payment during that time.
Carrier Coverage
Q. What countries do you cover?
A. We’re adding new countries all the time so this answer changes frequently.
Check out our Coverage page to see where we are now.
Q. How do you connect with the carriers?
A. About 80% of our carrier connections are direct with the carrier.
Q. Why does this matter?
A. Direct carrier connections mean better pricing, which means lower costs for you.
Q. What is your intra-country coverage?
A. We always cover at least 95% of the mobile subscriber population before we open a new country.
Conversion
Q. What is a payment conversion rate?
A. A payment conversion rate is the rate at which a consumer successfully completes a payment after initially starting the process.
Q. Why should I care about payment conversion rates?
A. A small difference in your payment conversion rate translates into a very big difference in revenue.
Let’s take a simple example. Suppose you sell virtual cowboy hats for for
$1 and 10 people want to buy them as evidenced by clicking a “buy now” button on your site.
If your payment conversion rate is 10%, you’ll sell 1 cowboy hat and make $1.
If you convert 20%, you’ll sell 2 and make $2.
See a recent blog post for a more in depth look at payment conversion rates.
Q. Is 65% high?
A. Yes, it’s very high, but don’t take our word for it.
Just ask around and talk to e-commerce merchants who try to get consumers to give them a credit card or bank account.
Many will tell you they see payment conversion rates of anywhere between 5-15% for credit cards, for example.
Q. How can I figure out how to compare Zong vs. credit card or other forms of payment?
A. Use our handy Number Cruncher to figure out your Net Revenue
after taking into account payment conversion rates and transaction costs.
Costs
Q. What about the wireless carriers? What do they charge?
A. Carriers take anywhere from 25-45% of the transaction amount.
You can checkout specific outpayment rates for each carrier and country
on our Coverage page. (“Outpayment” is industry jargon for your take
of the transaction amount after the carrier and Zong fees are deducted.)
Q. Why should I accept Zong when other payments are so much cheaper?
If you’re selling virtual goods, or other high-margin items,
your focus should be on profit maximization, not transaction cost minimization.
Your profits are a function of price, volume and cost.
Assuming your price is fixed across all payment methods,
the only two levers to work with are volume and cost.
The payment conversion rate drives volume, and that’s where Zong adds value.
As long as your payment conversion rates are high, you’ll make more money
despite the relatively higher transaction costs.
Use our handy Number Cruncher
tool to get a better idea of how impactful this equation can be.
Integration
Q. How do I get started?
A. Just fill out and submit this short form and we’ll get back to you with more information.
Q. What's the hi-level process look like?
A. First, you create a Zong account. Second, you write some code to embed our iFrame into your site per our Integration Guide. Finally, you provide us with a callback URL and you can begin production testing.
Q. What technical skills are required to integrate Zong?
A. You can use any programming language you want.
However, knowledge of HTTP, specifically constructing Get and Post requests, is required.
Q. How long does it usually take to get integrated?
A. We’ve had developers integrated after a few hours of work, but most require a few days.
Q. How does Zong integrate with my website?
A. We have a simple HTML iFrame which embeds into your web page.
Q. Can I control the look and feel of the iFrame?
A. Yes. You can control most of the basic look and feel elements of the iFrame via CSS. However, you cannot change the end user flow.
Q. Why can’t I change the end user flow?
A. To be compliant with each wireless carriers’ rules and regulations,
we need to control the end user experience to ensure certain
standards and guidelines are upheld.
Q. Does Zong integrate with Flash?
A. We do not currently support Flash,
but we have customers who develop Flash-based games who are using Zong.
Watch a live screencast.
of a Flash app that integrated Zong.
Settlement
Q. How long does it take to get paid?
A. It can take 60-75 days from the end of the billing period to get paid
Q. Are you holding my money to earn the float?
A. No. It takes the carriers this long to pay out, and we turn it around to you in a matter of days.
Q. In what currency do you pay out?
A. Whichever currency you prefer. You choose the currency when
you setup your account. All foreign currencies earned from foreign
transactions are converted at the time of billing reconciliation
and remitted to you in your preferred currency.
Q. Is there an option to be paid faster?
A. Yes. We offer an Express Pay solution, which pays out in 30 days.
Your account must meet certain criteria to qualify.
See your Account Manager for more information.
Q. Is there a fee for Express Pay?
A. Yes, we charge a small percentage of the amount advanced since we are taking financial risks.
Customer Service
Q. Do you provide front-line customer support?
A. Yes. We provide both toll-free phone support and email support for your customers.
In some cases, coordination with your customer support team may be required.
Q. How will my customers know how to contact customer support?
A. We clearly display phone numbers and email addresses
for customer support in the SMS messages we send.
We also take support requests through this website via the
Contact page.