“Last year was the first in which a region other than Africa led growth in mobile money…”

The GSMA is tracking the rise of mobile money, with 2017 having seen a billion dollars’ worth of transactions processed per day.

The figure comes from the industry organization’s new State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money, and reflects the growing popularity of mobile payments around the world. Last year was the first in which a region other than Africa led growth in mobile money, with South Asia seeing a year-on-year growth of 47 percent, and accounting for 34 percent of the world’s registered mobile money accounts.

Globally, the year saw 136 million new accounts registered in 2017, marking a 25 percent increase from 2016. Mobile money is now available in 90 countries, and the GSMA says that an increasing number of mobile money services are seeing more than half their registered users taking advantage of their services on a regular basis.

In a report summary, GSMA Director General Mats Granryd emphasized the role of mobile money in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, with mobile money technology helping to formalize payments, improve transparency, and increase GDP in developing markets. Of course, those laudable benefits are not the key motivator for companies like Apple and Google as they compete with their own mobile payments platforms; but it points to a brighter future for these corporations and their ends users alike as the mobile money ascent continues.