Global Mobile Payment Statistics 2011

Worldwide Mobile Payments

mobiThinking
March 2010

Worldwide mobile payments (m-payments) are growing strongly, but will still only be worth 5 percent of ecommerce retail sales in 2014:

• N.B. definitions of m-payments may vary.
• Portio Research (March 2010) estimates there were 81.3 million people worldwide using their mobile device to make payments (including in-app payments, mobile ticketing and mobile coupons) in 2009. By the end of 2014, this is forecasted to rise to nearly 490 million (8 percent of mobile subscribers).
• The volume of m-payments i.e. face value of purchases and transactions was US$68.7 billion in 2009, rising to US$633.4 billion by end-2014.
• Juniper Research (April 2010) predicts that almost half of global mobile subscribers – both developed and developing nations - will pay by mobile for physical and digital goods and services (such as ticketing) by 2014. For example, in 2014, more than 500 million people will make m-payments on the Indian Sub Continent.
• The volume of m-payments (i.e. how much they spend) will be US$170 billion this year, growing to $630 billion by 2014. But this is only 5 percent of ecommerce retail sales.
• But IDC (May 2010) believes that in EMEA, m-payments will take off slower than m-banking, forecasting that less than 13 percent of mobile subscribers will be registered to use m-payments and volume of m-payments will be no more than $125 billion. Thus m-payments will take off slower than many industry observers hope, due to the complexity and set-up costs for retailers. However, strong growth in m-banking will lay the foundations for growth in mobile payments.

While the rest of the world trial/dream of payment by mobile, in Japan it is already a way of life.

ComScore (February 2011) research indicates that in December 2010 alone, 9.8 million or 10 percent of Japanese mobile subscribers used their mobile wallet to make a purchase. 7.6 million consumers made a purchase in a retail/convenience store; 3.2 million purchased from a vending machine; 2.7 million paid for public transport; 2.6 million purchased in a grocery stores; and 1.5 million paid a restaurant bill all using their mobile phone, instead of cash, card or check.

Shopping on the mobile Web, i.e. m-commerce will reach US$119 billion in 2015 predicts ABI Research (February 2010).

That’s about 8 percent of the total e-commerce market:

• Today, Japan is king of m-commerce, where mobile Web shopping exceeded US$10 billion in 2009, making the US$1.2 billion bought in the US by mobile look trifling.
• For more insight on Japan, see this: guide to mobile in Japan
• M-commerce in Europe is expected to outpace the US by the end of 2010.
• Long-term growth in m-commerce will come from developing nations where mobile is virtually the only way to access the Internet.

74 percent of online retailers in the US are planning for m-commerce, according to Shop.org/Forrester Research (June 2010)

• One in five has a fully implemented mobile strategy in place already.
• On average, retailers were spending US $170,000 on their mobile sites in 2010, with large multichannel retailers spending several times that amount.
• But retailers report that mobile browsers today generate a little less than 3 percent of overall site traffic and just 2 percent of revenue.

Top m-commerce retailers:

• In 2009, the top m-commerce retailer according to Altimeter Group (June 2010) was Taobao, (part of Chinese Web giant Alibaba Group) with an estimated $800 million in revenues.
• In 2010, eBay consumers bought and sold over US $2 billion worth of merchandise on eBay via mobile, up from $600 million in 2009. According to Steve Yankovich, vice president mobile at eBay, this $2 billion in gross merchandise volume is derived 78 percent via its numerous mobile apps and 22 percent mobile web.
• “In the last twelve months, customers around the world have ordered more than US $1 billion of products from Amazon using a mobile device," according to Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com (July 2010).

More than 1 in 10 mobile subscribers will use m-ticketing in 2014, estimates Jupiter Research (April 2010):

• Services are developing fastest in the transport sector, particularly rail and metro companies and airlines, but m-ticketing is also used in concerts and movies.
• Hotspots for transport m-ticketing include Japan, Scandinavia and Austria.
• Airlines increasingly offer not only mobile boarding passes, but ticket booking and payment as well.
• But lack of standards has led to multiple ticket scheme environments which could impede growth.

M-coupons will dominate mobile retail marketing spend until 2013, according to Juniper Research (March 2010):

• Mobile retail will exceed US$12 billion by 2014 (mobile retail is defined as m-coupon redemption values, smart poster fees and advertising expenditure).
• The mobile retail sector would initially be dominated by coupons, but mobile advertising expenditure will exceed coupon redemption values by 2013
• The m-coupon service of McDonald’s Japan is used by 4.5 million users, according to Infinita
• The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) (October 2010) plans to use m-vouchers to deliver food aid to 40,000 Iraqi refugees in Syria by the end of 2010.

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