• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, December 13, 2006

Bango, which helps companies run mobile commerce sites, is offering a new service package that promises higher payouts to content providers that have a high volume of transactions.

Aimed at major brands and content aggregators, Bango's Advantage package ensures higher payouts than normal by negotiating better rates with mobile operators on behalf of top sites. Bango will provide payments of up to 90% of the amount a consumer pays, depending on the payment method.

Transactions billed through a customer's wireless operator, for instance, typically generate lower payouts to content providers than those processed via credit card or PayPal. If a site owner finds a better payout rate for a given billing method, then Bango will try to match it.

The new service, which costs $34,900 per year in the U.S., will generally apply to mobile e-commerce sites doing at least $400,000 per year in business. In addition to better payouts, the Advantage package includes a range of services such as promotional tools to help drive traffic, inclusion in mobile search results, and customer tracking analytics. Bango offers several different service packages, depending on the size of a mobile content provider.

When it comes to mobile commerce, the U.S. lags behind Europe and Asia. But Sarah Keefe, vice president of marketing communications for Bango, said that transactions the company has handled involving U.S. mobile customers have increased fivefold this year. She attributes much of that growth to the increasing use of mobile search. "Both Google and Yahoo have moved into the mobile marketplace and realized mobile is another big area for them," she said.

Bango clients include News Corp., Manchester United Football Club, Discovery Mobile and MTV.