What is Boku?

When I asked my teammates if they knew anything about Boku (the company I'm studying in the retail and e-commerce industry), none of them had heard of the company. Thus, I thought I'd post this because most of you may be in the same boat...

Boku is a startup mobile payment company founded in 2008. It provides another option for purchasing goods and services online. How it works is you enter your phone number, receive a confirmation text message, and reply with "Y" for yes. The site where you made your purchase will display confirmation of your response, and the transaction will be made. Instead of the transaction showing up on your credit card bill, it will be reflected on your phone bill.

Boku currently holds a strong presence in online games and social networking sites, where virtual goods can be purchased. Boku purchased rivals Paymo and Mobillcash (where they had a presence in Facebook), and have secured $25 million in a third round of venture capital funding (they have raised $10 million and $3 million in previous rounds)*. Boku operates under the Paymo brand for consumers.

One major obstacle, however, is the premium fees that mobile carriers charge in order to complete the transactions. Boku gives sites the option of either eating this fee or passing the cost to the consumer (most choose the latter). Sites like Boku are working with carriers to bring these fees down.

For more information, visit these sites:

http://www.boku.com/

http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/business/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218000001

*http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/01/19/boku-lands-25m-for-mobile-payments/