Text Messaging Featured Article

As more and more parts of the world become connected through mobile devices, text messaging has grown into one of the most ubiquitous forms of communication. Capitalizing on the widespread and highly accessible nature of texting, businesses are now looking for more ways to take advantage of the technology. Mobile payments provider Boku (News - Alert) has partnered with IPC Media to create a new “text to pay” feature for paying for print magazine subscriptions via text message without using credit or debit cards.

By texting a keyword and completing the process on a mobile site, the user can subscribe with the fee appearing on their carrier bill or reduced from their prepaid Boku balance.

The partnership hopes that the new feature will stoke interest in print for mobile-first, online oriented, young customers.

 “Creating a solution with Boku that gives readers the ability to immediately subscribe using their phone number has tremendous potential to grow our subscription business,” said Beatriz Montoya, acting direct marketing director for IPC (News - Alert) Media. “Very soon our readers will start discovering keywords that they can subscribe with via insert cards, print ads and on the covers on their favorite magazines.”

IPC Media says it’s trying to take advantage of technology to push its print business. The company’s titles include Marie Claire, InStyle, and Ideal Home.

 “Providing IPC Media with the ability to capture payment easily and immediately in the physical world – in a doctor’s office, waiting on a plane to take off, or just relaxing on the beach – is the perfect integration for our service,” added Boku CEO Jon Prideaux. “Working with IPC Media to create such a simple, elegant solution for people to easily subscribe to their favorite magazines paves the way for ‘text-to-pay’ solutions for a variety of subscription based products. Our vision of using carrier based mobile payments in the physical world has come into its own.”

Boku currently works on mobile payments with different tech and entertainment companies including EA, Sony, and Facebook (News - Alert). It boasts four million users globally.