BackWorldwide m-payment users to touch 190 mn 2012: Gartner
Worldwide m-payment users to touch 190 mn 2012: Gartner
Premium
Mumbai: The conventional mode of payments may soon be a thing of the past with the increase in the number of users making m-payments, globally.
The number of users making payments through their mobile phones worldwide is expected to be more than 190 million by 2012, a global research firm said.
“We predict that the number of mobile payment users will reach more than 190-million in 2012, representing more than 3% of total mobile users worldwide and attaining a level at which it will be considered “mainstream", the global information and technology research and advisory firm Gartner said.
Mobile payment would take three years to hit the mainstream market because of low-user awareness and varying needs of the different markets, it said.
“The market will see fragmentation in both technologies and business models, meaning that services need to be adapted for individual markets--even when deployed with the same partners--and that long lead times will be needed for deployment," Gartner said.
This, together with the time required for creating user awareness, leads Gartner to believe that mobile payment is at least three years away from entering the mainstream market.
The number of mobile payment users worldwide will total 73.4 million in 2009, up 70.4% from 2008 when there were 43.1 million users, Gartner said.
In terms of both number of users and transaction volumes, Asia-Pacific and Japan would maintain a larger share of the market through 2012, Gartner said.
By the year-end, there would be an increase of 70.4% in mobile payment users across the world compared to 43.1 million in 2008, the research firm said.
“Momentum in mobile payment market gathered further in 2008 with a number of high-profile launches of mobile-money transfer services in multiple markets, participation of major global institutions in near-field communication (NFC) payment trials, as well as payment solutions entering market," Gartner’s research director Sandy Shen said.
However, at the same time, security concerns, an inadequate ecosystem and undefined areas in banking regulations remain challenges for mobile payment, Shen said.
Mobile payment is a mode of payment for a product or service using mobile technology such as a short message service (SMS), wireless application protocol (WAP), unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) and NFC.
It includes transactions that use banking instruments such as cash, bank accounts or debit and credit cards, as well as non-carrier stored value accounts, such as travel cards, gift cards or Paypal.
It does not include transactions that use mobile operators’ billing systems, such as purchase of mobile content or telebanking by mobile to the service center via an interactive voice response (IVR) system
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
