The recent surge in contactless payments would continue, fuelled by further scaling up of infrastructure rollout and increased card payment limits in key markets, according to the Digital Payment Strategies: Online, Mobile & Contactless 2016-2020 report issued by Juniper Research.
While cards will account for 90% of contactless payments by 2020, the deployment of NFC (Near Field Communications) payments by high-profile players such as Apple and Samsung would increase consumer awareness and usage of smartphones to fulfil transactions, the report highlights.
Several companies, including Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, had already introduced ‘buy’ buttons in 2015, allowing users to make purchases directly from the companies’ mobile apps in a seamless couple-of-clicks transaction.
Furthermore, ecommerce on social media activity would increasingly extend into the P2P (Person to Person) payments space. It cited the example of WeChat in China, which saw more than 32 billion ‘red envelope’ monetary gifts sent in a 6 day period in February, and claimed that other dominant players could also leverage their ubiquity.
According to research author Dr Windsor Holden, “Facebook has already rolled out a P2P service linked to its Messenger service in the US, and we would expect additional deployments in other core markets over the next year or so.”
Mobile wallet adoption would continue to accelerate in developing markets, with nearly 20 countries across Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa now having more mobile money accounts than bank accounts. It emphasised that as wallet users reached a critical mass in these markets, service providers were introducing more sophisticated payment services such as loans and micro-insurance, thereby hastening the drive towards financial inclusivity for the unbanked.
Juniper Research is acknowledged as an analyst house in the digital commerce and fintech sector, delivering pioneering research into payments, banking and financial services for more than a decade.
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