MasterCard is investing a lot of mobile so it is not surprising that the company would seek to know which countries are ready to welcome the payments technology. Their recent “Mobile Payments Readiness Index” White Paper reveals that only Singapore is close to achieving a significant importance of mobile payments in the market. The global average of readiness for mobile payments is 33.2 on a scale of zero to 100. The study’s analysis rests on six criteria: consumer readiness, environment, infrastructure, regulation, financial services, and mobile commerce clusters. Consumer readiness presents itself as a crucial factor – “consumer familiarity, willingness, and actual usage are necessary conditions for mobile payments to take off.” Kenya scored the highest in customer readiness – as mobile payments are already common in the country.
When it comes to the use of mobile payments, MasterCard discovered that customers in all markets are using mobile devices mainly for m-commerce, rather than person-to-person or point-of-sale transactions. The exception comes from African countries, where services like M-Pesa serve as the main payments and banking channel for the population.
Europe does not score as highly as might be expected and presents many discrepancies between nations. MasterCard argues this is not a result of the Eurozone crisis but simply “the result of the unique characteristics of each of these markets’ payment systems and the unique profiles of their consumer populations.” The country that showed the most promise was the United Kingdom, with high levels of consumer readiness and smartphone penetration.
The report concluded that not one factor determines the success or failure of mobile payments, and that each market is unique. It also noted the importance of partnership – their absence dramatically decreased mobile readiness scores.
