Raynor de Best
Content expert covering payments and (crypto)currencies
Mobile payments with digital wallets - statistics & facts
Digital payments involving the likes of Apple Pay, PayPal, or Alipay are predicted to be the fastest growing payment method throughout the world. The CAGR of such digital wallet transactions in e-commerce, for example, is estimated to be 15 percent between 2023 and 2027. What makes these transactions - that typically involve a virtual wallet or card on a phone or smart device - so popular, both in 2024 and beyond?
Mobile wallets are a very broad category of digital payments, with many shapes and peculiarities across the world. Nevertheless, it is a payment method that is difficult to ignore. Many experts believe it will either directly replace cash or cards, or indirectly impact other upcoming alternative digital payments due to its ease of use.
Mobile payments are not a U.S. trend
Despite such U.S. brands like PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay, the countries with the highest mobile wallet adoption are located in Asia - not in Europe, or the United States. This is no coincidence. Emerging countries use digital wallets as a driver to combat their unbanked population. Alipay and WeChat in China, but also the likes of Gojek in Indonesia or PromptPay in Thailand, were all developed when there were no other digital payment options in those countries. That said, digital wallet market shares in Latin America and MEA (Middle East, Africa) are likely to remain lower than Asia's.Customer experience is a big motivator
Convenience is another reason behind digital wallet growth. A survey held in Romania, for instance, names ease of use and overall comfort as the main motivation to use wallets in both mobile proximity payments - also known as contactless, NFC, or tap to pay payments - and in e-commerce. Speed was not as important. Rather, the most desired shopping innovation consumers wanted was frictionless payments, or transactions with as few barriers as possible. Of course, this feeds into emerging countries wanting to ease people without financial service access into using digital payments. Ease of use - and relatively low costs - likely explains why the top 10 countries in mobile proximity payments using a QR code are all outside the U.S. and Europe.(Lack of) wallets impact other digital payment trends
The desire for fintech-driven wallets - be it from a financial inclusion or consumer convenience perspective - was so great, that when countries did not immediately get them, local banks developed their own payment systems instead. Apple Pay's penetration and the penetration rate of PayPal, for example, are both high across several countries. Most of their users either come from European countries with a high population or that speak English. Other countries responded by creating their own local brands, which combine real-time (instant) payments.Mobile wallets are a very broad category of digital payments, with many shapes and peculiarities across the world. Nevertheless, it is a payment method that is difficult to ignore. Many experts believe it will either directly replace cash or cards, or indirectly impact other upcoming alternative digital payments due to its ease of use.
