108.6M Users to Make Mobile Payments in 2010

The number of users to make mobile payments all around the globe during the ongoing year is expected to grow by 54.5 percent when compared to the last year, a recent report from Gartner shows. That number should reach 108.6 million users during the ongoing year, the research firm states, adding that only 2.1 percent of all mobile phone users would make mobile payments.

“We continue to see strong growth in developing markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa for mobile payment, while adoption in North America and Western Europe lags behind due to the plentiful choices of payment instruments that consumers have,” said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. “Developing markets have found the right formula for mobile money services — functions that users want and an ecosystem that can sustain the service.”

When it comes to mobile payment users, the Asia/Pacific region is in the lead. The number of such users should reach 62.8 million in 2010 in the region, Gartner notes, adding that they would account for 2.6 percent of all mobile users. The number of mobile payment users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is expected to top 27.1 million in 2010, representing 2.1 percent of all mobile users, while in North America the number should reach 3.5 million users, while accounting for 1.1 percent of all mobile users in the area.

“The answer for developed markets, however, remains elusive. The offerings for developed markets will take a different format,” Shen commented. “Instead of a point offering for mobile payment, the service needs to be built on top of the existing payment behavior and infrastructure so that users can choose any channel — retail, phone, online or mobile — that suits their context at the moment of payment.”

According to Shen, the unbanked and underbanked populations without access to banking infrastructure or PC should drive the demand for mobile payment upwards in developing markets around the world, as mobile represents the natural choice of access. Moreover, early-adopter markets are enjoying harsh policies aimed at a better user protection, as well as at the fight against “unlawful financial activities relating to money transfer,” Gartner concludes. Additional details on the report are available on the research firm's website here.