Mobile payments were born just the other day. They have however, come of age. It is in fact safe to say that mobile payment solutions have spread like wildfire. Mobile driven commerce exceeds US$972.25 billion. Experts predict that by 2021, the figure will hit the trillion dollar mark. This will amount to approximately 10% of all consumer card payments volume. So what is exactly behind these figures? What is the future of mobile payments? Read on to learn more.
Demographics
Mobile payment solutions can easily be compared to a game of numbers. It all boils down to figures. That is because the bulk of growth in mobile payments is mostly from the Asia Pacific region. That is where the bulk of the world population is. China leads the way, with Chinese customers making payments via mobile devices more than they do with cards, desktops and laptops. North America and Europe are quickly catching up. By 2020, 15% of all digital commerce in the USA and 37% of all digital commerce in the United Kingdom will be through a mobile device.
Convenience
Transferring money from one account to another, buying goods, paying for services, paying for utility bills and even applying for loans sum up what mobile driven commerce is all about. A decade ago, no one would imagine doing all these things using a smartphone on a couch without moving an inch. You can make quick purchases while on the move anywhere. This is what convenience is all about. Such an efficient and high level of on the move consumption is facilitated by the readily available apps powered by mass subscriber volumes primarily because of high level smartphone penetration and widespread internet connection.
Biometrics
Biometrics will soon be a permanent feature in point of sale systems as well as mobile payment solutions. That is because security is, has and will always be a major concern when it comes to commerce whether online or offline. More than 70% of online fraud has something to do with identity theft. That has forced stakeholders in the mobile payment industry to look at biometrics as one way of containing fraud. With biometrics, authentication becomes easy as it involves validating a transaction based on a user’s fingerprints. Iris, retina scanning, voice and facial recognition can also be used. All these explain why today, nearly all smartphones come along with inbuilt fingerprint scanners.
The Rise And Rise Of Virtual Currencies
E-money ranging from Facebook Credits to Bitcoins, and from merchant loyalty points to egold are becoming popular by the day. Such virtual currencies create loyalty or lock owners to a system as they cannot be transferred outside their systems easily. While most mainstream mobile payment solutions are wary of such payments options because of the legal gray area surrounding them, one cannot ignore the fact that they are gaining traction. There is now increasing interest in technologies that drive crypto-currencies. There are in fact, several mobile payment solutions that recognize crypto-currencies, a trend that is expected to pick up in the next five years.
Young Trends
This is easy to explain. More young people, and even children today own smartphones. It gets better with the fact that they prefer using e-wallets and cards as compared to hard cash. With such a demographic coming up, it is easy to see how big mobile payment solutions will become in a decade or two.