New and improving technology is making the job of virtual airtime suppliers easier and more profitable.
By plugging into lightweight airtime and data top-up APIs, it is now possible to launch a small business or side hustle as a cell phone airtime and data vendor within minutes — even if you are not a developer.
While this technological efficiency is new, the virtual airtime reseller business is not. Airtime top-up APIs have been around for many years, but clumsy and complicated technology has held back the vast amount of jobs that this industry can create.
The reasons are simple (and sad). Current airtime APIs are:
- Overly complex to integrate
- Unclear for non-developers
- Void of any supporting toolkit for developers
- Less attractive due to poor commissions
To overcome these challenges and better enable more virtual airtime suppliers to create money and jobs, a new airtime API vendor had to enter the market.
We built it, and called it Reloadly.
Reloadly (inspired by the ease to ‘reload’ top-ups) has created the world’s first airtime API developer toolkit with the intention to make the jobs of virtual airtime suppliers easier, scalable and more profitable.
Our airtime and data top-up API had to check off important boxes before it was launched. So in 2018, we set to out create:
- The world’s first airtime API developer toolkit
- An open-access airtime top-up cloud platform
- An airtime API widget, easily integratable for non-developers
- A bulk airtime application on GitHub (also made for non-developers)
These tools all had to achieve our core mission: Easy integration. Less complexity. Scalability. More profitability.
As an airtime aggregator, Reloadly’s airtime and data top-up API connects you to over 630 mobile operators (from national telcos to global leaders) in over 140 countries. And this network keeps on growing month by month.
The power to tap into the nexus of global telecommunications via one end point, combined with the right tools, can now finally make for a widely scalable and potent business model.
Creating a business using an airtime and data API has several advantages, and can be applied to about a dozen use cases. In this article, we’ll cover the following topics related to virtual airtime suppliers:
- Huge demand in prepaid mobile markets
- Improved commissions (and network) potential
- No start-up capital business model
- A vast variety of other businesses to expand into
Let’s be clear — the old scratch-off top-up cards are either long gone or disappearing rapidly, but the demand for airtime and data top-ups is only going to continue surging.
Becoming a virtual airtime supplier will put you ahead of this growth curve. But only if you adopt API technology that allows you to keep apace the rapid demands of the mobile revolution.
Why join the ranks of virtual airtime suppliers? To cater to the huge demand in prepaid mobile markets
The vast pre-paid markets of Africa, Latin America and South Asia represent over half the world’s total population.
This slice of the globe is completely dominated by pre-paid mobile services, a system that enables customers to churn from telecom brands at a whim. Naturally, global MNOs are always on the lookout to facilitate new channels for their end customers to help build loyalty and reduce this churn.
This presents a grand opportunity for virtual airtime suppliers that comes with a ready-made market that is in constant demand for easy access to airtime and data top-ups.
Yet, these three regions are still vastly underserved when it comes to the ease of access to airtime top-ups. There are literally billions of mobile users that need constant airtime purchases; we are far from being able to adequately serve them today.
Here, the statistics speak volumes:
- In Africa, about 95% of mobile subscribers have a prepaid service, making it the largest non-contract telecom market in the world.
- In Latin America, the mobile market is also still largely dependent on prepaid, with Nicaragua having the highest percentage of prepaid mobile subscribers at 94%, and Chile the lowest rate of such clients with 57%.
- India and Southeast Asia are also prepaid-dominated mobile markets. Indeed, India, the world’s second-most populous nation, has a telecom market compared with the African continent — 95% of Indian mobile users are on prepaid plans.
Virtual airtime suppliers can serve this massive global demand.
Many markets already have mobile money products available, so the concept of using smartphones to enable other services is not alien.
For older generations that are used to scratch-off top-up cards, all it takes is an easy introduction to show how virtual airtime suppliers can provide more convenient, competitive and efficient top-up services.
Improved airtime commissions potential through a larger mobile operator network
The core value of integrating with an airtime and data top-up API is its ability to connect you with the world’s entire mobile operator network, all through one integration.
Other airtime aggregators have long provided this service. But many of these API providers offer mobile operator networks that are incomplete, provide lower commissions, and commonly have lots of technical integration issues that prevent rapid scalability.
For Reloadly, the ability to integrate an easily programmable and scalable airtime API is what makes the work of virtual airtime suppliers so much less of a headache today.
Naturally, our airtime API technology has helped us to build crucial partnerships with global telecoms: We count over 630 mobile operators within our network, spread out over 140 countries — and our global network continues to grow.
This vast mobile operator network allows our API to pass on attractive discounts for airtime and data bundle purchases from the world’s telecommunications system to your wallet. To view these discounts, you can see a full pricing list here.
Thanks to this international network, resellers can now make even more satisfying profits with our API.
Typical margins made by virtual airtime suppliers can range from 5% to 10%. However, this rate can vary greatly depending on the region, bulk purchases and mobile operator, which is why your choice of airtime API provider is so critical.
Moreover, resellers that choose to purchase bulk airtime can receive sizable additional discounts, ranging from 6% to 15%, which is why bulk airtime has become a fundamental part of the virtual airtime supplier business.
[Are you interested in joining virtual airtime suppliers that already use our airtime API for their business? Contact Reloadly and discover how you can use our API to build a profitable business, as well as how cryptocurrency payments can receive additional discounts.]
Reloadly’s International Mobile Top-up Network
The international mobile top-up operator network for Reloadly’s airtime API is vast and growing.
On this page, you’ll find a world map divided into regions to help you discover which mobile operators are accessible within Reloadly’s airtime API. Each country has a dedicated airtime API page, which lists the top mobile operators ranked by their market share and an airtime API product documentation overview with a link to our developer toolkit.
For example, if you are searching for a way to buy and resell airtime top-ups to MTN in Nigeria, you can hover over Nigeria on the map, click the country and then choose the option that says, ‘Go to the page.’
You’ll then come to our Nigeria airtime API page with a header displaying the Nigerian flag. We list the mobile operators in rank, from the largest market share to the smallest. They appear in this order on the title, as well as on the logos section.
For Nigeria, our airtime API allows access to the four main mobile operators in the country: MTN, Glo, Airtel and 9mobile.
We also provide market share data (when available). For Nigeria, that looks like this:
- MTN Nigeria, which has a 36% market share;
- Glo (Globacom), which has a 26% share;
- Airtel Nigeria, which has a 24% share; and
- 9mobile (formerly Etisalat Nigeria), which has a 12% share.
Through this page, Reloadly has made the task of finding your desired mobile operators for your set of countries (or country) easily searchable.
Some other popular country pages for virtual airtime suppliers (according to our experience) are:
Simply find the market you are looking for to check if the mobile operator your market wants is there. If you see that the mobile operator you want is not there (which doesn’t happen often but is a possibility), then contact Reloadly and let us know. This network is always growing and updates happen frequently.
[Have questions about pricing for a certain mobile operator? Contact Reloadly and we’ll help you clearly understand how pricing and discounts can help you grow your business like other virtual airtime suppliers.]
No start-up capital business model
Starting a virtual airtime supplier business requires little more than ambition and the will to set up a virtual or physical storefront.
But having a store isn’t even necessary at first.
Using the Reloadly mobile app, you can quickly and easily begin reselling airtime and data top-ups to friends and family. Just like that.
If that business takes off, our airtime API is built to be scalable. Reloadly enables mobile top-up businesses to buy and sell airtime, data bundles and digital goods via an API that easily integrates with web, desktop and mobile software apps.
It pays to repeat: Scalability is key.
The goal of an airtime API provider is to help us all disrupt the multi-trillion dollar telecommunications industry because up until now poor technology has held us back.
Today, many mobile operators are stymied by legacy tech infrastructure that does not allow scalability.
This is why Reloadly’s open-source platform was designed to make the scalability of virtual airtime suppliers (and many other airtime top-up businesses) possible on a global scale for the first time.
This brings us to our next and final reason why so many are joining successful virtual airtime suppliers by integrating our airtime API: the many use cases that have lowered the barrier of entry thanks to the use of this technology.
A vast variety of other business to expand into
Becoming a virtual airtime supplier may be only the beginning of a profitable, scalable and multi-dimensional business venture that you may grow into going forward.
Indeed, Reloadly’s API attracts customers that are looking to fulfill a wide variety of use cases.
Some of the most popular use cases our clients use our API for are:
- Airtime rewards: Many different industries use airtime rewards as part of their marketing strategy mix. And not only mobile operators that are looking how to reduce churn in the telecom industry. The use of airtime rewards is also especially visible in the mobile gaming industry, which increasingly uses top-up rewards as a mobile game retention strategy.
- Survey/research compensation: We are often approached by NGOs and academic institutions that are looking to use airtime as an incentive to have respondents answer surveys and studies. This is really common in Africa and Latin America.
- API for cryptocurrency exchanges: Reloadly’s airtime API supports cryptocurrency by allowing crypto providers the means to accept mobile recharge worldwide payments using a range of cryptocurrency coins. In effect, this provides a loophole around illiquidity by allowing crypto holders to turn digital coins into cash quickly.
For a list of other use cases, please see our airtime API guide for more details.
Final thoughts about virtual airtime suppliers
Reloadly’s airtime API was created with an important goal in mind: To disseminate an easily integratable and scalable top-up tool that is built on an open-source platform and supported by a comprehensive developer toolkit.
By integrating our API, you can now build and scale a virtual airtime suppliers business with more transparency, profit and efficiency than ever.
Importantly, it is now long overdue for more businesses to start using advanced airtime APIs to replace the clunky legacy technology infrastructure used in many mobile markets today. Isn’t it time you integrated an airtime API that did just this?
Contact Reloadly today to give your airtime and data top-up business a boost ahead of the curve.
