Leading Social Media and Entertainment Giant Case Study

Company Overview

A leading technology company known for owning the largest social media and video-sharing platforms globally,  needed a reliable partner to ensure comprehensive payment testing coverage across diverse and complex regions.

The Challenge:

The company contacted Testlio when the complexity of its payment systems increased, and the need for local testers could no longer be ignored. As it grew quickly, it needed a more scalable solution than hiring individual partners in different countries or resorting to employees in those regions becoming testers. 

In their search for a reliable partner with a global reach, the media giant aimed to solve the following problems: 

End-to-End Payment Testing

The company required extensive testing for three primary reasons

• Pay-In: Payments made to the company for in-app purchases.
• Pay-Out: Payments made by the company to content creators or other external providers
• Payment Studies: They also required a comprehensive assessment of alternative payment systems, verified by local testers, to guarantee their efficiency and usefulness as the company expanded to new markets.

However, end-to-end payment testing was incredibly complex to manage internally. In addition to its back-end systems, the company had to ensure flawless checkouts and payments to creators across several third-party gateways, each with its own intricate complexities. They needed testers that offered a broad range of technical expertise across these gateways to ensure coverage, which they simply couldn’t staff in-house. 

Their regional partners offered limited scope in different geographies, making the management of several partners difficult and time-consuming. They needed a global partner that could help them simplify management and offer localized resources. 

Lack of Local Testers and Environments

Since payment transactions can’t always be simulated in labs, the company required local testers and environments to ensure accurate outcomes and user experiences. This meant that the partner they chose needed to ensure they not only provided localized expertise but also had the means to leverage several regional payment methods, devices, and more to ensure compliance with payment systems and local regulations. 

In-Production Testing

One of the biggest challenges for the company was ensuring the partner they chose could conduct in-production testing before the app was in production. To achieve this, the company needed testers with technical expertise to work with proxy servers and navigate this complexity easily and efficiently. 

Cost-Effective Testing

The media giant required a flexible partner who could bill them hourly based on an agreed-upon number of transactions per hour. Most vendors prefer to charge per transaction, but the media giant needed to manage costs effectively due to the high volume and speed of transactions.

Diverse Payment Methods

The company required testers who could handle various payment methods, such as Apple Pay and Buy Now Pay Later options. These systems’ diversity and technical complexity called for a high level of expertise. Additionally, they needed a service provider capable of assisting them in managing niche region-specific payment methods that weren’t widely offered by many partners.

Ad Hoc Requests

High-priority (P1 and P0) issues required rapid attention and the quick mobilization of teams. This was crucial for maintaining operational efficiency and addressing urgent problems promptly. Since the company prioritizes these issues above all, they needed an adaptable partner who could take on projects quickly, validate issues in their chosen regions, and drive faster resolutions.

The Solution:

Partnering with Testlio gave the client access to over 10,000 highly skilled and vetted experts available on demand. This enabled them to address complex payment systems with the necessary technical expertise and improve coverage without hiring regional testers on their own.

Comprehensive and Localized Payments Testing

With Testlio’s global network of expert testers and industry-leading client services team, the client could ensure comprehensive payment testing for pay-in, pay-out transactions, and payment studies. 

With testers in 160+ countries, access to over 600k+ devices, and 800+ payment methods, Testlio’s distributed workforce ensures the media giant has coverage in geography and payment gateways. Testers use real transactions across regional payment methods, including obscure hard-to-test payment types, to ensure they cover the most critical aspects of the payment flow in real-world conditions. 

Testlio’s platform allows the company to verify that testers assigned to projects have the necessary technical skills, certifications, and experience to perform thorough testing. If certain skill sets aren’t available in the region, Testlio’s recruitment process ensures resources are staffed and trained as efficiently as possible to prevent project delays. 

Live In-Production Testing

With Testlio, the social media company can conduct live in-production testing by assigning a proxy server to enable testers to perform payment tests before app updates or new features are launched. Testing with a proxy server is a technically complex process that requires the tester to follow each step carefully and ensure all parameters are adequately tested. 

Efficient Ad Hoc Request Handling

The company relies on the Testlio testing team to quickly mobilize freelancers and run tests for critical bugs, as most of their testing needs are ad-hoc and aim to validate their P1 and P0 issues. With our around-the-clock distributed workforce, we ensure same-day test completion for app-breaking problems. 

Today, we help ensure that more than half of the testing projects are completed within a day. Although other projects may sometimes be deprioritized based on importance or require multiple retests, they are handled as efficiently as possible, too. The Testlio team ensures flexibility and collaborates with the company to ensure testers meet deadlines that match the client’s dynamic needs. 

Cost Management and Automation

Hiring local testers can be incredibly challenging, partly due to the time it takes to find, onboard, and train the right talent. Another aspect to consider is the length of time companies need this talent. Since transactions occur within minutes, hiring someone full-time or part-time isn’t cost-effective. Testlio addresses these challenges by managing the entire process and offering transaction/hour rates instead of per transaction. This approach provides transparency and visibility down to the minute for transaction data. 

Furthermore, Testlio ensures flat client service hours through automation, cutting the time required by half. Since ad-hoc testing is unpredictable, it was important to the company that the partner they chose could minimize surprise charges and dedicate more time to testing. By automating client services, the company ensures that processes like recruiting, onboarding, reporting, and more do not unnecessarily take up management hours, allowing Testlio to keep the costs flat without reducing time spent on testing. 

Outcomes:

By partnering with Testlio, the media giant can ensure comprehensive payment testing without compromising quality, speed, or cost-effectiveness. Testlio’s solutions offer the flexibility and technical expertise they need to navigate the complexities of global payment systems. 

Global Reach

Testlio’s ability to mobilize a global network of testers allows the client to conduct payment testing in 160 countries and regions. This extensive coverage guarantees that the client can validate their payment systems across diverse markets, addressing region-specific nuances and ensuring a seamless user experience worldwide.

High Volume of Transactions

In the past year, we tested over 2,700 transactions, providing a robust data set for thorough analysis and validation of the payment systems. Notably, one-third of these transactions were pay-out tests, where the client needed testers to confirm global content creators received their payments accurately and promptly.

Extensive Payment Methods Coverage

The client uses Testlio to test more than 500 payment methods like Apple Pay, Visa, MasterCard, and Venmo and Buy Now Pay Later options such as Klarna, Affirm, and Atome. This wide range of payment methods ensures that the client’s systems are compatible with different payment preferences and trends, offering a flexible and user-friendly payment experience.

In addition to the more frequently used payment methods, Teslio also helps the company test niche payment methods. During one particularly challenging task, a tester had to place an order from a convenience store in Japan and stay on-site to resolve any issues. All tests were conducted live, with the client team using Mandarin and the tester replying in English. Despite the complexity, the tester efficiently completed the task, emphasizing the importance of testers who can work in diverse and dynamic environments.

In another instance, the client needed confirmation on whether a user could receive USD in Iraq or if transactions were limited to regional currencies. Our tester verified payment functionality after traveling 12 km to complete the transaction, highlighting the operational challenges in regions with limited infrastructure and emphasizing the importance of persistent and resourceful testers.

Efficiency, Flexibility, and Turnaround Time

Efficiency is a cornerstone of Testlio’s service delivery. Fifty percent of testing projects achieve same-day turnaround, enabling the client to address urgent issues and maintain operational continuity. For projects that require more time due to complexity or multiple retests, a globally distributed workforce ensures swift and efficient handling, minimizing downtime and disruption.

Cost-Effectiveness and Peace of Mind

By automating critical aspects of the client services process, Testlio reduced management hours by half, enabling the company to keep its client service costs relatively stable despite having diverse and ad hoc testing needs. The time saved through this process has allowed the company to allocate more time to testing and avoid any unexpected charges, providing them with the reassurance that their testing is not only cost-effective but also focused on the most critical areas.

Through a partnership with Testlo, the client ensures robust and reliable payment systems worldwide, maintaining its leading position in the media and entertainment industry. The collaboration addresses the immediate challenges and establishes a scalable and efficient testing framework for future needs.