Wallets for the win: digital payment model enters pantheon of everyday tech

After Commodores, IBMs and Macs; Segas and Nintendos; mp3s and streaming services; smartphones and tablets and apps; biometrics and everything else, it’s gotten easier to see when a technology has a good shot at becoming an everyday thing that nearly everyone uses. Digital wallets have reached that point. Mobile driver’s licenses (mDL) are still an emerging technology, but physical event tickets and plastic credit cards are on their way out, condemned by the pandemic-driven touchless payments revolution.

A new paper from Juniper Research, Digital Wallets: Empowering Financial Inclusivity, says that the number of transactions completed via digital wallets has grown 110 percent between 2020 and 2025, and projects that the number of digital wallet users worldwide will increase by 35 percent over the next five years. That’s 6 billion global digital wallet users by 2030.

Juniper says that the wallets winning the race for users are those that offer value-added features such as Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), virtual cards and digital identity. “Integrated flexibility of wallet types” like stored value, staged, cryptocurrency and so on, and of payment types like cards and account-to-account payments, are also key differentiators. Likewise with loyalty and reward schemes, a major factor in adoption.

Thomas Wilson, analyst at Juniper Research, says that “changing user behaviour such as card usage, particularly when it is long-established, means providing incentives. As the digital wallets space becomes increasingly saturated, differentiation using rewards and other capabilities, such as gamification or superapp features, will be vital to success.”

Regional, demographic differences reflect complexity of market

The path to market penetration has not been without the odd pothole. And challenges remain: fragmented regulations and increasing cyberattacks both hamper forward progress. For wallet and digital infrastructure providers, it can be difficult to navigate the regulatory requirements of each particular region, and adjust strategy accordingly.

It’s no surprise that older generations are more inclined to trust traditional banking methods – nor that Gen Z increasingly prefers digital ones, with over 80 percent of customers in that bracket adopting mobile wallets.

Regionally, markets such as the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands already have entrenched wallet ecosystems. “Countries with robust technological ecosystems and innovative payment regulations, such as China and the UK, see higher uptake of digital wallets.” More remote places or those with older demographics tend to exhibit slower adoption. The U.S. market is slower to trust digital wallets, but state mDL initiatives will drive adoption. Regional disparities, Jupiter says, “are shaped by a blend of infrastructure, policy, generational preference, and cultural readiness for change.”

QR codes turn out to be tech survivors with key wallet role

One fun section of the report details the success of QR codes. “QR codes have become a pivotal component of digital wallets in 2025, offering a versatile, contactless, and low-cost payment solution particularly favoured in certain regions such as Asia Pacific and increasingly gaining traction in Europe and the UK.”

The journey of the QR code from its invention in 1994 for labelling auto parts, to menus, billboards and wallets everywhere, is in itself a fascinating study in the mechanics of adoption. And it’s not over yet: “Juniper Research believes that QR codes will continue evolving through integration with augmented reality (AR), blockchain-based transparency solutions, and voice activated payment capabilities.”

Inclusivity an important piece of overall wallet puzzle

Juniper’s market forecasting is perhaps the most remarkable part of the report. Noting again the global increase in digital wallet users from 4.5 billion in 2025 to 6 billion in 2030, the firm says that “the sum of users in 2030 represents more than three quarters of the global population,” emphasising the widespread acceptance of digital wallets worldwide.

“Whilst rewards will help wallets in established markets compete, digital wallet platforms should also prioritise deploying solutions which target the underbanked in emerging markets,” it says. “As mobile money services aim to offer banking-like services, digital wallet platforms must evolve to provide more advanced capabilities, or they will lose market share to more mainstream banking platforms.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital payments  |  digital wallets  |  financial inclusion  |  Juniper Research  |  market report  |  QR code