Challenge

Pocket FM believes that audio storytelling should feel as immersive, emotional and binge-worthy as YouTube or TikTok. As an alternative to long-form audiobooks, the Bengaluru, India-based platform gives listeners access to thousands of serialised stories designed to be consumed episode by episode. With its unique role in the mainstream media landscape, the company has expanded into more than 20 countries across North America, Europe and Asia, doubling its revenue to US$500 million over the past year.

Founded in 2018, Pocket FM's business model primarily relies on selling digital in-app credits that listeners use to unlock additional content. As a mobile-first platform built for listening on the go, it initially relied on Apple and Google in-app purchase systems to process those microtransactions. But those systems offered limited visibility into payment performance.

"With in-app purchases, one big problem is that they are more like a black box. We wanted more ownership of the checkout experience, better visibility into payment performance and more flexibility in our pricing," said Umesh Bude, CTO at Pocket FM.

As Pocket FM expanded beyond India into global markets, it wanted greater control over its payments strategy than traditional app store billing could provide. The company needed deeper insight into authorisation rates, declines and overall payment performance to better understand and optimise monetisation across markets. The company also wanted to experiment with pricing strategies for specific customer segments and geographies, such as introducing a subscription model to complement its existing pay-per-episode model.

Moving payments beyond Apple and Google's ecosystems also introduced new operational complexity. Tax obligations that app stores had previously managed automatically now became Pocket FM's responsibility. With customers across more than 20 countries, the company needed a way to manage sales tax, VAT and GST accurately in each market without building dedicated compliance infrastructure.

Solution

In 2021, Pocket FM implemented Stripe Payments on its website to create an alternative channel for accepting payments outside of the app stores.

The company used Stripe's developer-friendly APIs and Stripe Checkout to quickly implement an embedded checkout experience on the web that supports credit cards, Google Pay and Apple Pay for digital coin purchases. Pocket FM began using the Stripe Dashboard to monitor its payment success rates, authorisation performance and decline patterns from these website transactions.

Rather than relying only on the standardised pricing options available through in-app purchases, Pocket FM used Payments to test pricing models as it expanded into new markets across North America, Europe and Latin America. Through Stripe's Payments Intelligence Suite, Pocket FM used Stripe Authorization Boost to improve its authorisation rate and boost revenue recovery with AI-powered acceptance optimisations such as Adaptive Acceptance, network tokens and Card Account Updater.

Shortly after implementing Payments, Pocket FM added Stripe Billing to test subscriptions alongside its existing credit-based microtransaction model. Billing gave the company the flexibility to experiment with different subscription tiers, free trials, upgrades, promotions and regional pricing as it entered new markets.

To manage its tax obligations as it scaled across markets, Pocket FM added Stripe Tax to automatically calculate and collect sales tax, VAT and GST on transactions across North America, Europe and Asia. Rather than building tax infrastructure or integrating a separate compliance tool, Pocket FM used Tax to stay compliant in each new market.

After Apple updated its policies in 2025 to allow additional payment options for eligible iOS app purchases, Pocket FM expanded its Stripe integration to support those purchases in its iOS app. This gave Pocket FM a way to support eligible iOS purchases using Checkout while maintaining a simple payment experience for listeners. This also transferred tax compliance responsibility for those iOS transactions from Apple to Pocket FM, which Tax handles automatically.

Results

Pocket FM implemented Stripe in less than three weeks

Pocket FM integrated Payments into its internal payment orchestration layer in less than three weeks with two engineers, allowing the company to accept payments through a direct payment channel without slowing down product development.

"As a CTO, the best part was Stripe's developer-first approach. The APIs are very intuitive, the documentation was clear, and the whole integration experience was pretty seamless," said Bude.

17% higher authorisation rates than the industry average

Pocket FM used its payment insights to boost its authorisation rate to 97%, which is 17% higher than industry peers. By using Stripe's authorisation optimisations to improve its transaction success rates and reduce false declines, Pocket FM recovered more than US$1 million in revenue.

"We have a lot more visibility and control than we did through the app stores, which allows us to work on improving our success rates," said Bude.

Subscriptions create a new revenue stream

Pocket FM used Billing to introduce subscriptions alongside its existing microtransaction model. Subscriptions are currently available in India, and there are plans to expand them to the US.

"Different users engage with content differently, so having both models gives us flexibility and options for customers to choose from," said Bude.

Stripe Tax automates compliance across global markets

As Pocket FM expanded into more than 20 countries and shifted more purchases outside the app stores, it used Tax to automatically handle sales tax, VAT and GST obligations. Today, 46% of Pocket FM's transactions run through Tax, covering its web and iOS channels without dedicated compliance infrastructure.

95% of iOS payment volume now goes through Stripe

By expanding its Stripe integration to support iOS in-app purchases, Pocket FM gained greater visibility and control over one of its most important sales channels. Since the integration, 95% of iOS payment volume is now processed through Stripe, while maintaining conversion rates comparable to the previous native iOS checkout experience.

"Processing through Stripe adds directly to our bottom line," said Bude.