Part of her angle was to investigate the intricacies of the mobile payments world, looking at how the behind-the-scenes parts of social gaming works.  Flashy gaming companies like Zynga, Electronic Arts, Playfish and Playdom frequently get all the glory; however, since these are companies with whom we partner, and their customers use BOKU to pay for many of their online transactions, we’re glad to see them in the spotlight and want to see them grow.  But it was fun to have the WSJ’s ace tech reporter for Boomtown come and shine a spotlight on what we do.  So thanks for coming to visit Kara - you’re welcome here anytime.

The video interview is embedded below.  Let us know what you think (did our hair look ok?) in the comments below.

Our mission here at BOKU is to create a bank-grade payments company.  We want to set the industry standard for mobile payments, and we do that by hiring talented people with the right experience in the right arenas.  Our management team is made up of experienced executives from the mobile carrier, financial, and technology industries - these are some of the most effective and smartest people in their respective fields.

One of the ways we try to communicate our mission to the world is by attending industry-related conferences and speaking publicly about the opportunities that await in mobile payments.   We visit games conferences, mobile conferences, retail conferences, virtual goods conferences and beyond. Frequently we’re sought out by conference organizers to participate in a panel discussion or deliver a presentation on the growth of mobile payments, new ways to develop revenue through mobile, or other related topics. We already have a pretty robust calendar of events for the second half of 2010.  We’d love to see you at the next one.

Below is a brief list of some of the events where we’ll be presenting in the coming weeks and months - if you know of a good event where we ought to participate, please leave a comment and let us know.

Recent and upcoming events where BOKU is speaking:

• MobileBeat
• Casual Connect
• Stanford Always On
• Giga Om Mobilize
• Virtual Goods World - Europe
• Virtual Goods Conference and Toy, Tech & Game Summit
• Alternative Payment Systems Innovations Summit

We’re testing some cool features that can help you monetize your mobile apps.  Check out the benefits:

• Seamless in-app billing
• 1-Tap™ mobile billing in 60 countries and 198 carriers
• No user registration or login necessary
• Potential for increased revenue and conversion
• Easy mobile integration - just drop in our SDK

You can learn more over here:

http://www.boku.com/android/

… and see what other folks are saying like this piece in Techcrunch:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/02/mobile-payments-startup-boku-launches-in-app-billing-library-for-android/

Let us know what you think and we look forward to working with you.

BOKU Team

From the Business Times Website:

Please join the celebration, as we honor the Bay Area’s most innovative technology companies,
led by the most enterprising entrepreneurs.

Our editors and judges selected 25 of the region’s most outstanding companies as finalists from nearly 300 nominees.    Winners in 12 categories will be announced at a gala awards reception.

This is your opportunity to meet 25 of the best and brightest technology companies in our
region – all fueling the growth of jobs and our economy.

The finalists are:
Adchemy
Aster Data
Bizo
Blurb
BOKU
Imperva
Jigsaw
Livescribe
Medallia
ON24
Pandora
Qualys
Riverbed Technology
Rocket Fuel
RockYou
Salesforce.com
Scribd
SlideRocket
Splunk
SuccessFactors
UnityTechnologies
Workday
YuMe
Zoosk
Zynga

BOKU’s SVP of Product & Marketing, Ron Hirson will be speaking on Mobile Payments and BOKU’s growth and opportunity, at ThinkEquity’s ThinkTomorrow~Today 2010 Summit. He’ll be covering:

• BOKU’s background
• The Current State of Mobile Payments
• Carrier considerations
• Merchant adoption
• Path to monetization on mobile for merchants

He’ll be speaking on May 11th at 8:45A.M. in Ravenswood

To learn more or to register, please visit the ThinkTomorrow~Today 2010 Web site. We look forward to seeing you there.

BOKU expands global reach to Antarctica

At BOKU, we strive to make mobile payments accessible to the entire world. We’re dedicated to reaching every last person that wants to pay with their phone, and we’ll go to the ends of the earth to find them. Seriously.

Antarctica, you ask? Yes…Antarctica. Through extensive market research and analysis, we’ve discovered incredible demand for mobile payments in Antarctica (Club Penguin there is huge). After meeting with several Antarctic carriers on location, and rigorously testing our service and availability, we’re proud to announce that we’re launching BOKU mobile payments in Antarctica.

Ron Hirson will be on a panel with:

Moderator: Meaghan Schaefer, CMO, edo interactive
Speakers:
Darren Cross, Director of Business Development, Fandango
John Trimble, Chief Revenue Officer, Pandora
Ian Wolfman, Chief Marketing Officer, imc²
Jeanniey Mullen, Global EVP, CMO, Zinio
Ron Hirson, SVP Product & Marketing, Boku

They’ll be discussing:

The Mobile Commerce Experiment: There is a slew of mobile commerce experimentation starting to pop up on mobile networks and devices. From Pizza Hut’s mobile app which allows consumers to place pizza orders to P&G’s microsite which allows customers to purchase products through the Drugstore.com mobile site, branded direct response campaigns seem to be picking up steam fueled by mobile commerce applications. When will we reach a tipping point in the consumer psyche in regards to making purchases through a mobile Internet site or an App? eCommerce was a huge driver in the growth of Internet advertising; is this the final piece of the puzzle for mobile?

Hope to see you there.

Here is the press release we issued today:

GLOBE GCASH and BOKU Partner To Create The Blueprint For International Mobile Payments
BOKU enables Globe mobile subscribers to purchase virtual goods from merchants around the world via the GCASH mobile wallet

February 16, 2010 – MANILA, PHILIPPINES AND SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Globe Telecom, a leading mobile operator in the Philippines through its wholly owned mobile commerce subsidiary G-Xchange Inc (GXI), is partnering with BOKU, Inc., a global leader in mobile payments, to expand acceptance of the Globe GCASH service internationally, the companies announced today. The deal opens the BOKU mobile payment platform and growing international merchant community to Globe’s GCASH subscribers.

By partnering with BOKU, GCASH extends its reach outside the Philippines to a global community of more than 1,000 BOKU merchant partners and a mobile payments community that covers over 190 carriers worldwide, allowing its users to purchase virtual goods from any merchant in the BOKU global merchant network.

“The Philippines is one of the richest markets in the world for mobile payments.” said Rizza Maniego-Eala, President of G- Exchange, Inc. “Since its inception in 2004, GCASH has been the most widely used mobile payment method for online purchases in the Philippines.  BOKU’s focus on mobile payments, specialized team, large merchant base, and tier-one investors makes them the perfect partner in providing GCASH subscribers with a rich new experience in mobile commerce, that opens up the opportunity to explore and purchase virtual goods from the vast international market.”

“This partnership is a perfect meeting of two companies’ visions for the way to pay in the future” said Mark Britto, CEO of BOKU. “This is a great model for mobile payments, enabling carriers to reach global merchants through BOKU’s network, expanding capabilities for online and physical purchases, while driving increased carrier revenues and reducing subscriber churn.”

BOKU launched in June 2009 and has seen tremendous growth in the last year.  Over this brief period the company has developed direct mobile payments service relationships with over 1,000 game and application developers, including almost all of the top applications for virtual goods and currencies purchased on Facebook.  BOKU’s mobile payment service, Paymo, is enabled across 190 carriers worldwide in over 60 countries, and reaches a potential 1.8 billion customers.

Useful Links:
GCASH Website:  http://www.globe.com.ph/gcash
BOKU Website:  http://www.BOKU.com
Paymo Website:  http://www.paymo.com
Watch a demo of BOKU in action:  http://bit.ly/2CEUoE
BOKU blog:  http://blog.BOKU.com/
Media Kit:  http://www.BOKU.com/press/media/

About GXI and GCASH
G-Xchange, Inc. (GXI) is a pillar in m-commerce and a fully-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom, which is a leading full service telecommunications company in the Philippines. GXI pioneered the revolutionary model in cardless and cashless mobile commerce service called GCASH which was launched in the Philippines in October 2004. GCASH is an internationally-acclaimed micro payment service which transforms a mobile phone into a virtual wallet for secure, fast, and convenient money transfers at the speed and cost of a text message. Since GCASH launch, GXI has established a wide network of local and international partners that includes government agencies, utility companies, cooperatives, insurance companies, remittance companies, universities, and commercial establishments which have agreed to accept GCASH as a means of payment for products and services.

About BOKU
BOKU is creating the standard for online payments using your mobile phone, making it easy to pay for digital goods and social experiences across the web. With a strong focus on reliability and security, BOKU’s goal is to bring bank-grade payments technology and mobile users together on the web, creating a trusted, viable and accessible market for consumers, publishers and carriers alike. Based in San Francisco with offices in Europe, Asia and Latin America, BOKU reaches over 1.8 billion consumers worldwide, and is funded by leading entrepreneurs and venture capitalists Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures. For more information, please visit BOKU.com.

BOKU, Paymo and Pay by Mobile are registered trademarks or trademarks of BOKU, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. BOKU reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice.

Media Contact in the US:
David Speiser
Stage Two Consulting
david@stagetwo.com
650.515.6635

Globe & GXi Media Contact:
Yoly Crisanto
Head of Corporate Communications Division, Globe Telecom
+63 2 7302627
yccrisanto@globetel.com.ph

Richie Sison
GXI - Head of Marketing
+63 917 818 9111
jasison@globetel.com.ph

If you’re at either of the two shows and would like to meet up, please email bd at boku dotcom.

Hope to see you there,

The BOKU team

Our second big piece of news is the introduction of our consumer-facing brand, Paymo. While we love the BOKU brand, after exhaustive and global testing we’ve determined that Paymo is a universally understandable brand, irrespective of culture, language, or background that resonates with consumers. So the Paymo brand is what customers will see when they checkout online using their mobile phones.

We’ve had a whirlwind experience as a company with a lot of exciting activity since our launch in June 2009 (only seven months ago!) Today is another thrilling milestone in an exciting tenure as a growing, active company.

We’ve also received a warm reception from bloggers, writers, and pundits in the online and traditional press, who have been spreading the word today. The list of who covered our news is below, and we’ll keep adding to it as we see more stories come out.

Thanks to our customers, our partners, and our investors for all your support and confidence. 2010 is going to be an exciting year!
-The BOKU Team

•    All Things D
•    MSN Money
•    TechCrunch
•    VentureBeat
•    Moco News
•    Washington Post
•    Silicon Alley Insider
•    Virtual Goods News
•    Payments News
•    Paid Content
•    Inside Social Games
•    Alt Assets
•    Wireless Week
•    Fierce Mobile Content
•    Nonstop Tech News
•    Telecom Paper
•    SF Business Times
•    Digital Media Wire
•    THE Paypers
•    Strategy Eye