Boku Regulatory News (BOKU)

24 February 2020

Boku Inc.

("Boku" or the "Company")

Boku Partners with AWA

Leading Japanese music streaming platform enlists Boku to grow subscriber base across desktop and mobile devices

Boku Inc (AIM: BOKU), the world's leading independent carrier commerce company, is pleased to announce a preferred partnership agreement with AWA Co. Ltd. ("AWA"), to allow AWA's Japanese customers to charge their recurring monthly subscription fees directly to their mobile phone bills via direct carrier billing.

Through the agreement, Boku offers direct carrier billing as a payment mechanism available to AWA's customer base via AWA's website and mobile application. Boku's support for tokenized payments and subscription management capabilities allows AWA's customers to seamlessly graduate from a free trial promotion to a paid subscription while reducing the operational burden many companies face in building out native subscription management engines.

The partnership reflects the growing trend of Japanese consumers using direct carrier billing to purchase digital goods and services through online channels.

Commenting, Tetsutaro Ono, CEO, AWA Co. Ltd. said "Boku has proven to be a trusted partner for us, not only helping AWA ensure that we are able to continue to acquire new paying users, but also in ensuring that our existing customers enjoy a convenient and reliable billing experience."

Jon Prideaux, CEO, Boku, commented: "Japan is one of the most sophisticated markets worldwide in their adoption and embrace of mobile payments, and AWA leads the charge in making payments as frictionless as possible for their customers.

"We are thrilled to help AWA on their mission to bring music to the masses and look forward to collaborating with them more in the future."

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About Boku

Boku Inc. (AIM: BOKU) is one of the world's leading providers of carrier commerce and mobile identity solutions. Boku's technology platform, which is linked to more than 170 mobile network operators worldwide, verifies user identity, executes payments, and provisions new services, simplifying daily mobile interactions between consumers and digital organizations.

Boku's technology platform is used in over 59 countries with over 815 million verified transactions in 2019, contributing $5 billion to the digital economy. Businesses that currently employ Boku's platform to simplify sign-up, acquire new paying users and prevent fraud include global leaders such as Apple, Discover, Experian, Facebook, Fiserv, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Paypal, Sony, Spotify, Uber and Western Union.

Boku Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in London, UK, with offices in various locations globally including in the US, Mumbai, Munich, Beijing, Paris, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Taipei, and Tokyo.

To learn more about Boku Inc., please visit: https://www.boku.com 

About AWA

"AWA" is a subscription-type (flat-rate) music streaming service provided by AWA Inc., a joint investment between CyberAgent and Avex Digital Inc. The service started in May 2015. The number of songs distributed is 55 million and the number of playlists created by celebrities and users is about 11 million. In November 2016, they announced a new "Free Plan" that allows you to use all functions except "offline playback" for free per month. A new feature "Highlight Playback" that allows cross-fade playback of short versions of songs has also been added, and the total number of downloads has exceeded 19 million (as of July 13, 2019). In addition, in the Google Play announcement "Best of 2017" Japanese version announced in December 2017, won the "2017 Best App", which is the top of the app. In November 2018, we formed a business alliance with the short movie platform "TikTok" in the music business. "AWA" has grown into the largest music streaming service in Japan, both in name and reality.