Based on the market survey statistics for the third quarter of 2023, over 120 “Identity V” proxy charging service platforms globally have been engaged in the service but with different charges. Taking the Southeast Asia region as an example. The total number of orders that a number one ranking charging agency platform dispatches in a month totals 87,000. Its regular 6480 Echo gift pack costs $79.9, while the regular price of competing products is $84.5, with a price difference of 5.4%. For frequent reloaders who reload twice a month, they can save approximately $129.6 annually and increase the return on cost (ROI) by 12%. Additionally, the website reduces exchange rate loss via the incorporation of local payment methods such as GrabPay and OVO. Compared to overseas credit card payments, the actual income for users increases 8% to 10%.
Technically, some websites adopt automated scripts to save expenses. For instance, one service provider reduced the recharge cycle from 15 minutes on average to 3 minutes using its home-made API interface, increasing the efficiency by 500% and decreasing the cost of manual inspection by 70%. The overall commission ratio of the “Identity V” agency recharge market in 2022 was 6.8%, according to the “White Paper on Mobile Game Payment”. But leading companies with advanced risk control systems were able to keep the ratio of fraudulent orders below 0.3%, and the cost of anti-fraud decreased by 45%. This part of the savings was passed on directly to users in the form of discounts. For instance, a particular platform provided a “Spend 100, get 8 off” voucher and combined it with the “double Echo for the first recharge” promotion, the users’ effective unit price of payment could be reduced to 0.012 US dollars per echo, 20% lower than the industry standard (0.015 US dollars per echo).
From a market dynamic perspective, in 2023 official recharging options for Apple App Store and Google Play had relatively higher prices because there is a 30% platform fee. Let us consider the Brazilian market. The official price of 6480 reais is set at 349 reais (approximately 69 US dollars), while third-party charging sites can bring the price down to 59 US dollars through regional exchange rate arbitrage and bulk purchases of gift cards, which is a drop of 14.5%. According to Sensor Tower data, the global revenue of “Identity V” was up 23% year-over-year in 2023. Among them, third-party charging agency channel contributed 31%, and users’ repurchase ratio reached 68%, which is much higher than 42% of the official channel.
As can be seen, the price benefit has to be weighed against compliance. In 2022, South Korea witnessed a “proxy recharge of black cards” case, which involved illegal credit card fraud, and this resulted in a 37% hike in the banning rate of player accounts. The compliance platform has been able to pass the ISO 27001 information security standard and the PCI DSS payment card data protection standard, elevating the level of account risk control security to 99.6% and the refund level to under 1.5%. For instance, one of them offers a “72-hour arrival guarantee” which gives a 5% refund if the time limit is not met. Its NPS (Net Promoter Score) is up to 82 points, which is above the industry average of 64 points.
Based on price information, efficiency, and security, certain current identity v top up service providers have achieved significant cost reductions by economies of scale and technology optimization. In making a choice, the end users have to compare the prevailing exchange rate, stacking rules for discounts, and their risk control features in a bid to optimize the cost-effectiveness of recharges.
