Mobile wallet adoption is on the rise globally, with consumers in the US and Europe catching up with those in fast-growing economies in Asia and Latin America where mobile wallets are a dominant payment platform, according to a study.
Published by ACI Worldwide and Aite, the study surveyed 6,035 consumers in a 20 countries across APAC, MEA and the Americas, including Australia, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand.
Research showed that 17% of US consumers now regularly use their smartphone to pay, up from 6 percent in 2014 when the survey was last conducted.
In Europe, Spanish consumers are the most active users of mobile wallets, with 25% using them regularly, followed by Italy (24%), Sweden (23%) and the UK (14%). In Asia, 28% of respondents from Singapore indicated that they use mobile wallets on a regular basis; the proportion was 47% in Indonesia, 51% in Thailand, and 56% in India.
India tops the list of countries surveyed for mobile wallet adoption, with 56% of consumers saying they pay with a smartphone regularly, followed by Thailand (51%) and Indonesia (47%). According to the research, these markets are leap-frogging traditional card infrastructures and usage patterns and are very mobile-oriented, as most consumer’s internet connections are through a mobile device rather than a desktop or laptop.
The survey also found that consumer confidence regarding mobile wallet security remains high. In the UK, 37% of respondents said they trust their bank to protect their personal information when paying via smartphone.
“Mobile wallets really started to grow in popularity after the launch of Apple Pay almost three years ago. 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,” said Mark Ranta, head of digital banking solutions, ACI Worldwide.
“Another important factor in the US is the ubiquity of mobile wallet acceptance. With the EMV rollout behind us, most stores are NFC-enabled and the acceptance of mobile wallets is now almost guaranteed by most larger retailers and even many smaller ones.
China is meanwhile one of the world’s fastest growing markets and trendsetters when it comes to mobile payments, Ranta said.
“The Chinese market is dominated by two players - Alipay and WeChat Pay. Both schemes use optical scanning ‘QR-code’ techniques at the point of sale instead of the plastic card industry standards like NFC (Near Field Communication),” he said.
“QR-code techniques have grown dramatically in popularity over the last 5 years, on the back of smart phone adoption and the ubiquitous use of social media and digital platforms. These new Chinese payments services are expected to drive new payment behaviours across Asia and globally.”