June’s Top 12 Mobile Pay Moments

Today marks the last day of June 2016, which means we’re halfway through the year. And what better way to mark that milestone than with a monthly recap of the Top 12 news items in one major market in the payments ecosystem: mobile payments.

Here’s what you may have missed this month from some of the top mobile pay players.

Apple Pay — 20 Months In

It’s been 20 months since Apple Pay launched. Twenty months later what has happened? How many consumers use Apple Pay? How often do they use it? Well, Apple isn’t so keen on sharing those numbers.

But as detailed by Karen Webster in her column this week, PYMNTS.com/InfoScout research provides a deep dive into how often consumers who can use Apple Pay (have the right phones and are in the right stores) do or don’t use it – and why.

Here are the three most telling stats from that research:

• 19 out of 20 people who can use it don’t, and that’s been pretty consistent throughout the course of our research.
• 47 percent of consumers surveyed said they don’t use Apple Pay because they are satisfied with their current payment method – even in a post-EMV world.
• 34 percent said they rarely consider using Apple Pay – a finding that is now consistent over the last two quarters.

For more on the newest Apple Pay Adoption results, click here.

Samsung Pay’s European Debut

On June 2, Samsung Pay officially launched in Spain, bringing the mobile wallet into its first European country. Samsung Pay is the first mobile payment service of its kind to be launched in Spain, giving it a head start in the market over Apple Pay and Android Pay.

The service was launched with availability for cardholders of CaixaBank and imaginBank. Samsung confirmed that Samsung Pay would also available for Abanca and Banco Sabadell customers as well.

Visa’s NFC Payment Ring

Visa rolled out the next generation of payments wearables this month: an NFC-enabled payment ring. And it’s bringing it to the Olympics for the Visa-sponsored athletes to use at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

These NFC payment rings will be used by all Team Visa athletes in Rio, along with 45 Olympic hopefuls from around the world. The ring enables these athletes to make purchases with only their ring at any NFC-capable payment terminal.

Chase Pay’s Deal At The Pump

On June 9, JPMorgan Chase recently announced that it secured a multi-year deal with Shell to accept Chase Pay at all of its gas stations. When it officially launches beyond the eCommerce option later this year (date TBD), it will serve as an app that will enable consumers to pay at the pump using their phone.

Now, as part of its new deal with Shell, it appears Chase is on its way to securing more support for its mobile wallet service that’s likely to be launched into market soon. And it’s got one major goal with this mobile payments play: loyalty. Chase Pay will also integrate Shell’s Fuel Rewards program.

Apple Pay’s Day On The Web

On June 13 at WWDC, Apple announced that Apple Pay will be available on the web later this fall, with a few constraints.

While an “Apple Pay” button will be available for a retailer’s site, it will only be accessible through the Safari browser on a Mac computer, making the addressable market roughly 5 percent of desktop browser use. In addition, the desktop user still needs to be able to access Touch ID via their iPhone or Apple Watch.

MasterCard/Visa Give Apple Pay Hong Support

MasterCard and Visa both announced they will enable Apple Pay access for Hong Kong-based cardholders. A recent study by MasterCard noted that customers in Hong Kong increasingly use mobile payments and that as many as three-quarters of consumers plan to make at least some use of them in the coming year.

Singapore Welcomes Two More Players

On June 16, Samsung Pay arrived in Singapore, allowing users of Galaxy Note 5, S6 Edge+ and the S7/S7 Edge phones can use Samsung Pay in the region. While Apple Pay also recently launched in Singapore, Samsung Pay joins the region with its signature niche: the MST tech that makes Samsung Pay usable at virtually anywhere merchant credit cards are accepted. Samsung Pay launched in Australia on June 15.

Then on June 28, Android Pay announced it was available in Sinagpore. Google and Samsung’s move to bring Android Pay follows Apple’s moves into the heavy mobile population.

Walmart Pay’s US Expansion

Walmart Pay is now available across more than 4,500 stores across the U.S.

The latest June count for where Walmart Pay is available is: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi and Washington, Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, and Washington, D.C.

PayPal’s Consumer Support

The latest consumer finance trend report from FICO gave a little insight into what types of payments services consumers are actually using. According to the report, here’s how PayPal stacks up.

In the survey, 19 percent of respondents currently use online payment services like PayPal and Venmo. Beyond that, 24 percent reported interest in using them.

“New advancements in technology have the potential to transform the payments landscape,” said Mark Ryan from FICO. “Innovation and convenience are driving usage of alternative products and services like online and mobile payments. However, not all areas have seen strong adoption. Our research shows that marketplace lending is suffering from sluggish adoption because of either insufficient value to switch or a lack of trust in the financial services provider.”

RIP CurrentC

On June 28, the experiment that was MCX and CurrentC came to an end, nearly four years after MCX threw its hat into the mobile payments market ring. The company announced earlier this month that users’ accounts will no longer work after that date. Anyone who loaded a gift card onto the CurrentC wallet and didn’t hold onto that gift card will lose that balance after June 28. Gift card balances can only be transferred off the app if the user has the original gift card.

China’s Mobile Payments Dominance

According to eMarketer‘s first projection of proximity mobile payment traffic among Chinese consumers, they estimate that the number of people who used the technology to complete a transaction will grow 45.8 percent annually to reach 195.3 million users in 2016. In comparison, the U.S. can claim only about 37.5 million of the same transactions this year.

Alexa’s Mobile Banking Pair Up

“Alexa, can you pay by Citibank credit card statement?”

This sentence just might be a reality soon. Citigroup’s FinTech unit is reportedly testing how it can use Amazon’s voice-activated assistant, Alexa, and the technology that powers her voice in tandem with its mobile banking app. Beyond that, Citi is also looking to add facial recognition tech to its app so users could log in using facial authentication.