Billing Revolution's 'Single-Click' Mobile Payment Service Now Accessible Via SMS Ads

Billing Revolution, a startup that offers a single-click billing and payment service for commerce transactions on mobile phones, is partnering with MoVoxx, a mobile advertising network that leverages SMS messaging, to place commerce ads on mobile phones.

MoVoxx advertisers can implement Billing Revolution’s one-click billing and payment service in SMS advertisements so that consumers can purchase products directly from the ads received on their phones. MoVoxx serves short, interactive ads under opt-in SMS messages for retailers such as Kraft, Sears and 1-800-Flowers.

Founded in 2008, Billing Revolution is trying to streamline mobile purchases by offering an easy- one click solution (similar to Amazon’s feature). Once consumers are ready to buy something from the Web from a vendor that employs Billing Revolution’s service for payment, they are taken to Billing Revolution’s purchase page where they input credit card information from their phone. Once complete, Billing Revolution automatically sends an SMS receipt to their phone, which contains a link. After clicking that link, authentication is complete and with all future purchases, consumers will need only to click ‘buy’ for a transaction to be completed.

Billing Revolution charges a 3.5% transaction fee plus 50 cents per transaction. With those fees it’s tough to take a cut from micropayments, which are already small to begin with. This is a particular problem with mobile applications,, because an app developer wouldn’t want to take a 50 cents cut on a song or app that was sold for $1 or $2 on the iTunes app store. Billing Revolution maintains that the service is targeted more towards substantial purchases like movie or event tickets.

And or larger purchases, Billing Revolution’s service could turn out to be profitable for e-commerce businesses who have mobile transactions. Mobile carriers generally take a revenue share in e-commerce transactions taking place on mobile devices. In some cases this can be as high as 60%. With commerce powered by Billing Revolution, retailers can bypass large carrier fees (but still have to pay the 3.5% percent and 50 cents transaction fee).