Consumers increasingly embracing digital payments and biometrics

A study conducted by MasterCard and PRIME Research has found a total of 2 million global social media posts addressing mobile payments across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, forums, Google+ and YouTube, reflecting a significant increase from the previous 85,000 posts reported in 2012.

Some 97% of digital wallets including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay and MasterPass dominated the total mobile payments conversations in 2015, which mostly involved product launches, service improvements and how users are evaluating them.

Aside from discussions about digital wallets, social media conversions were driven by contactless cards (47%), biometrics (33%), personal payments (14%) and wearables (6%). Conversations about contactless cards addressed the expansion of global adoption at public transit systems such as those in London and St. Petersburg as well as availability at major sporting events across the globe.

Meanwhile, the safety and security of mobile payments continues to drive conversations, as 94% of consumers continue to maintain a positive or neutral view of the services being offered to them. This represents a 3% increase over last year and 24% above the initial 2012 study.

The elimination of passwords and biometrics were among the most engaging topics in 2015, reflected in social conversations in 163 countries worldwide. Fingerprint and electrocardiogram (ECG) payments-related technology became an engaging topic for users throughout 2015, while facial recognition (“Selfie Pay”) was the top driver (55%) of biometrics-focused conversation.

In another MasterCard study, First Tech Federal Credit Union was one of two global partners in fall of 2015 to help MasterCard test biometrics payment authentication using the MasterCard Identity Check. At the end of the pilot, participants were asked about what they thought about the technology. Based on these findings, 88% of participants said that biometric authentication was overwhelmingly easy to use on its own while 86% of respondents said they found it even easier to use than password-based authentication. Additionally, more than 90% of participants said that biometric payment authentication is a method they could see themselves using on a daily basis.