Today In Data: Kill The Check, CA’s Cannabis Boom And Smart Speakers’ Proliferation

Today in PYMNTS’ data, billions of checks are still being issued annually in the U.S. (despite recipients’ growing dissatisfaction with them), California’s economy may see a huge boost from the now-legal recreational cannabis industry, smart speaker devices’ proliferation is expected to grow exponentially, large corporations are expecting blockchain integrations by the end of the year and a significant portion of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are considering switching financial institutions to get the services they need.

Here are the numbers:

22 billion | The number of checks still being issued in the U.S., despite the rise of faster payments, alternative payment methods, direct deposit and other more convenient options. Surprisingly, direct deposit is not as ubiquitous as people think. Not every employer offers it, and not every employee wants it. As such, those 22 billion checks aren’t really coming from consumers, but from companies, lenders, the government and other sources — and 97 percent of consumers told PYMNTS they don’t like how they’re being paid.

$5.1 billion | Potential worth of California’s cannabis industry in 2018, according to estimates from cannabis financial analyst GreenWave Advisors. More than 400 shops in California officially had licenses to sell recreational marijuana and associated products as of Jan. 1. The state is home to 39 million people, boasts an annual output of $2.5 trillion and could receive a massive boost from the up-and-coming cannabis industry.

175 million | The number of smart speaker devices expected to be in use in the U.S. marketplace by the end of 2025, at home in 70 million households (55 percent of all households) nationwide. Most estimates for the number of smart speakers in the U.S. by the end of 2017 were between 25 million and 30 million, and such wide penetration means big changes and big potential for innovations — particularly for payments and commerce players who can find new and better ways to open up opportunities for users.

66 percent | Percentage of large corporations expecting blockchain to be integrated into their systems by the end of 2018, according to Juniper Research survey results released in July. The report also found 57 percent of the nearly 400 executives surveyed said they are actively considering or are in the process of developing blockchain technology. The corporations that stand to gain the most from blockchain are those in need of transparency in their transactions, particularly those that currently rely on paper-based processes and legacy storage systems or handle a high volume of transmitted data.

14 percent | Portion of 500 surveyed SMBs in the U.S. that switched from a large global bank in the last year, and more said they’re considering doing so this year, according to the FIS Performance Against Customer Expectation (PACE) report. Nearly half said they might change banks because their current providers do not have the products and services they need.