If micro-payments are finding their own target market anywhere at this point in time, it appears to be in the market for digital goods like games and social-network applications.

mENABLE which began operations several years ago announced this week that the mobile processing product it shares with its parent company, txtNation Ltd., has added several million unique transactions from the start of this year with the introduction of a new billing widget, adding further integration and payment options for websites.

Michael Whelan, txtNation Director says; “The new service addition is clearly driving the company’s growth.” Until 2009, txtNation, which provides a wide variety of mobile services like mobile campaigns such as competitions and voting to content services, had a year on year growth rate in mobile billing. “The acceleration in our growth from the start of this year until now is largely due to micropayments, through mENABLE.”

Users could rely on credit or debit cards, but sending an SMS to a number is easier and less distracting, Whelan says. “It’s a lot easier to send a text message than reach for your wallet,” he notes.

"Role-playing games, for example, are seeing additional revenue from microbilling at rates as high as 90 per cent of their initial sales, while other games are generating as much as 60 per cent of their initial sales profits in micro-billing transactions."

With over seven years of operating experience, txtNation has high-scale connectivity with mobile networks worldwide. The mENABLE mobile payments platform features one of the most extensive network of direct operator connections across the world. Direct mobile network relationships are a key factor for virtual goods, social networking and gaming companies evaluating where to deploy secure transaction platforms that are critical for new revenue generation. txtNation, as a leading sms aggregator and premium sms provider also act as the technological backbone platform, via their legacy gateway product, mBILL.

txtNation friendly carriers include Alltel, AT&T, Cellular One, Sprint Nextel, Boost, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, and Virgin. txtNation says also that more people have mobile phones than have bank accounts, 4 billion to 2 billion, making a mobile account the closest thing billions of people have to a real credit line.

Recently, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), responsible for implementing the European Union’s Electronic Money directive in the United Kingdom, relaxed the guidelines that determine what can be purchased via a mobile device. As a result, micro-payments are expected to steadily grow in popularity in major markets over the coming years.

txtNation will continue to work closely with many of the world’s most powerful consumer brands to build and evolve micro-billing solutions that enable consumers to pay for non-mobile products via their mobile phone. txtNation, are betting on micro-payments.