According to Y-Stat’s latest report on global mobile payment methods for the year 2012, the volume of mobile payments will globally increase by approximately 70% in 2012. This growth is explained in part by the increase in mobile shopping in the emerging economies of China, India and South Africa.
Mobile payments and mobile commerce are also increasingly popular in some part of Europe. French citizens were especially motivated to use mobile payments in 2012 in order to save on their purchases. Italians are enthusiastically embracing mobile payment methods. The Italian market for mobile payment methods is expected to grow annually by a three digit rate over the next few years. Spanish company Telefonica Digital signed agreements with companies like Google in July 2012 to enable payments via phone bill. Thus, the market is also growing in Spain. The M-Commerce market in Eastern Europe is also very successful. Poland in particular has experienced strong growth, where M-Commerce increasing twice as much between 2010 and 2011 than in the rest of Europe. Russia is also focusing on M-Commerce activities.
However, many European consumers are still concerned about the safety of the mobile channel. The UK, despite predictions that it will become the largest market for mobile commerce in Europe, is particularly wary. Fewer than 20 percent of all consumers in the UK want to use their mobile phones to make future payments. The majority are still concerned about safety. The Danish too are very concerned about the reliability of mobile – especially card information. Approximately 40 percent of all Danes wanted to re-enter their credit card details at every new purchase in the first quarter of 2012, while others preferred to save the information without having to enter it every time anew.
Additionally, we reported the growth of mobile payments fraud in Europe. It seems that mobile payments providers will need to make sure their solutions are 100% secure before rolling them out to skeptical European consumers.
