Biometric authentication among innovations causing optimism for global mobile payments market

Mar 14, 2019, 2:39 pm EDT | Chris Burt

Mobile payments are used by more than a third of global internet users, and the market outlook remains positive as biometric authentication and other security innovations help consumers overcome security concerns with mobile payment adoption, according to new research offered by Research and Markets.

The “Global Mobile Payment Methods 2019” report shows Asia-Pacific has a double-digit lead on other regions in percentage of internet users adopting mobile payments. The Chinese market, dominated by services such as WeChat Pay and Alipay, includes more than 500 million users, and adoption is also growing in Singapore, India, Australia, and Indonesia. Latin America has the second highest interest in mobile payments, according to the report, while services like Apple Pay and Google Pay have increased in popularity for ecommerce payments in the U.S. and Europe. While payments in the Middle East and Africa are still dominated by cash, the market share of mobile payments in those regions are projected by Research and Markets to increase.

The report also explores how fast contactless mobile payments are likely to grow, the top mobile wallets worldwide, what countries use mobile payments the most, the market’s major drivers and barriers to adoption, and consumer perceptions about the security of mobile payments.

Mastercard’s Digital Payments Study recently suggested that social media chatter about biometric and mobile payments increased substantially last year, and Goode Intelligence forecasts the market for mobile biometric payments will reach $1.67 trillion a year by 2023.