Three years on from Apple Pay launch, mobile wallets gain momentum

On the eve of the third anniversary of the launch of Apple Pay, mobile wallet adoption in the US and Europe is gaining traction, but Asia and Latin America continue to lead the way, according to a new report from ACI Worldwide and Aite.

4 comments

Three years on from Apple Pay launch, mobile wallets gain momentum

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

The research, based on a survey of more than 6000 people in 20 countries, shows that 17% of US consumers now regularly use their smartphones to pay, up from six per cent in 2014. In Europe, the Spanish are the most active users of mobile wallets, with 25% using them regularly, followed by the Italians (24%) and Swedes (23%), compared to just 14% of Brits.

However, it is in less economically developed countries, where traditional card infrastructures are being leapfrogged, where the technology has really taken off. In India, 56% of consumers say they pay with a smartphone regularly, with Thailand and Indonesia reporting similar numbers.

Meanwhile, in the UK, 37% of respondents say they trust their bank to protect their personal information when paying via smartphone; in France, 40%; and in Holland, 28%. Compared to previous years, confidence rates regarding mobile wallet security have dropped in some countries, a sentiment that may be influenced by increasing reports of new mobile wallet fraud and scams.

"Mobile wallets really started to grow in popularity after the launch of Apple Pay almost three years ago," says Lu Zurawski, practice lead, retail banking and consumer payments, ACI. "What we are seeing is a tipping point regarding adoption, which can be attributed to consumers worldwide now almost exclusively using payment-enabled devices, as older models have cycled out, with a few exceptions."

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Comments: (4)

Melvin Haskins

Melvin Haskins Managing Director at Haston International Limited

Could someone tell me what percentage of the mobile market Apple have. I was always under the impression that it was a low number. If that is the case, where does Apple Pay sit in the stats?

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

"In India, 56% of consumers saying they pay with a smartphone regularly".

56% of the population of India doesn't even have a smartphone. There are 300M smartphones in India (source), which is 25% of the population of 1.2B people. It's highly plausible that 56% of that 25% i.e. 14% pays with smartphone regularly.

The sentence "In India, 14% of consumers saying they pay with smartphone regularly" doesn't support the basic claim made by the report, so we see "strategic silence" with numbers. I'll file this under yet another exhibit for the use of method #2 of lying with Big Data.

Coincidentally, India's largest mobile wallet, PayTM, which has around 200M mobile wallet users, just launched a plastic debit card recently! 

A Finextra member 

Huge conclusions drawn from tiny sample. 6000 people over 20 countries? So with an average sample of 300 people per country they publish a report?

"Lies, damn lies and paid for market research"

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

Now even Venmo, the Darling of Millennials and Onetime Expected Killer of Plastic, has launched a plastic card!

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