Ebay zong deal relies on established payment methods

Ebay's customers to pay by entering mobile phone numbers

Ebay’s outright acquisition of Zong will enable its customers to pay simply by entering their mobile phone numbers and then seeing the charge listed on their monthly mobile phone bill.

This is clever because it recognises that, among all the talk about new types of mobile payment, it makes sense to get more value out of an established payment relationship : the mobile phone bill.

It also makes it even easier for consumers to pay, dangerous perhaps for those consumers vulnerable to impulse purchases or gamblers who make no association between money and a mobile phone number. No doubt, fraudsters are already thinking about how they can take advantage of this payments channel, as the phone companies are not liable for fraudulent purchases in the same way as credit card companies are.