The rise of mobile payment

Mobile commerce and mobile payments have passed another important threshold: in many countries, more people are using their phones – than credit cards – to buy things.

In a recent BuzzCity survey of some 3300 mobile consumers, we found that the number of people making mobile payments has tied or surpassed the number of people using credit cards in 17 out of 23 countries.

This trend is most evident in places like Bangladesh and South Africa, where other forms of electronic payment – credit cards, debit cards, pre-paid cards – are common, but not ubiquitous. In Bangladesh, 28% of mobile consumers told us that they use credit cards; in South Africa, it’s 15%. In both cases, more than twice as many consumers now use their phones to make daily purchases (55% and 36% respectively).

From a regional perspective, m-payment adoption appears strongest in Asia. In Bangladesh and Pakistan, more than half of all mobile consumers use their phones to make purchases. We’re seeing strong adoption rates in India, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand as well. In Europe, mobile payments are most popular in the UK; in Latin America, Guatemala leads the way.

Overall, nearly 1 in 4 mobile consumers (24%) now use mobile payments compared to 17% for credit cards and 12% for debit cards. Mobile payment use has grown more than 50% since our last poll in 2013.

While mobile payments are on the rise, the most common way of paying for items bought via mobile is still cash. Sixty-four percent of mobile consumers tell us that they either pay cash at the store or upon delivery.

Prepaid Cards

We are also seeing increased adoption of reloadable prepaid cards (which generally look like ‘traditional’ Amex, MasterCard and Visa cards). Eighteen percent of mobile consumers use prepaid cards to pay for items with their phones and 12% use them for daily purchases.