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Mogees launches mobile billing service for Android developers

Mogees, a mobile billing startup founded by PayPal alumni, has launched a monetization service for Android developers.

The Mogees software developers' kit allows mobile application developers to easily offer various free-trial forms of their applications and get paid straight from mobile phones.

"We chose to launch our Payments SDK beta for the Android first because there is currently no easy way for Android application developers to get paid for their hard work," said David Lee, cofounder and CEO of Mogees, Mountain View, CA.

"Also, given the open approach the Android team is taking, we thought this would be a good platform for us to launch on," he said.

In addition to its Android SDK, Mogees will soon release SDKs for the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms.

"We are working hard to expand Mogees to the BlackBerry and iPhone platforms as soon as we can," Mr. Li said. "I would expect we will launch additional SDKs by the end of the year."

Mogees was founded by two early employees of PayPal who met back in 2000.

The payment SDK will provide Android developers worldwide an easy way to monetize their applications, according to Mogees.

Mogees claims to be the first mobile billing service designed specifically with the application developer in mind.

"On the developer front, any mobile developer who needs a solution to monetize the app would be our target user," Mr. Li said. "We expect many of these developers are one or two-man shops who do not have the resources to build their own billing solution and just want an easy way to get paid.

"On the consumer front, we are targeting owners of the Android, iPhone, or BlackBerry phones who use their mobile device to buy applications, content or services," he said.

For the mobile consumer, the payment experience is integrated with the application, straight on the mobile device, which results in higher payment conversion, the company claims.

As a special thank you to its beta developers, Mogees announced a $1 million free payment processing promotion for the first 1,000 developers who sign up.

"Because not many developers have heard of Mogees yet, we thought we would provide some incentive for them to try Mogees," Mr. Li said.

"We believe that once they try Mogees, the developers will understand the value we provide and will choose to stay with us even after our promotion is over," he said.

Eligible developers will be able to use Mogees to process payments for free through the end of the year. Promotion details can be found at http://www.mogees.com/public/promo_rules.

Mogees claims its business model is designed to optimize the consumer buying experience.

Consumers have the options of paying with credit cards or via their PayPal accounts.

Because Mogees is part of the mobile application, the buying experience feels seamless with the rest of the application, Mr. Li said.

In addition, Mogees is able to securely identify the mobile device to enable payments in just one click.

"In the short term, the monetization we offer is around pay-per-download," Mr. Li said. "We will launch the ability to sell content, products or services soon, including a subscription-based model. We may also offer integration with existing mobile ad networks down the road.

"We are targeting mobile-specific channels to reach the mobile developer audience," he said. "We'll also reach out to the developers on mobile application developer forums and via word of mouth."