2.1 Billion to Use Mobile Payments Next Year: Juniper Research

A huge chunk of the world’s population will use mobile wallets make payments or send money next year, according to a new market forecast from Juniper Research.

In fact the firm says that a huge chunk of the population is already doing so, asserting that 1.6 billion consumers used mobile wallets at the end of last year. Looking ahead, Juniper Research says this number will rise to 2.1 billion consumers in 2019, an increase of 30 percent.

It sounds like good news for Apple Pay and Google Pay, but it’s particularly good news for PayPal, which Juniper Research says will lead the pack. In a report summary, the firm asserts that the US-based e-commerce company, “which has begun offering contactless payments instore in the US, had the greatest opportunities to develop a converged wallet on a worldwide basis.” Meanwhile, Alipay, the mobile payments platform offered by China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba, follows closely behind, according to Juniper Research’s analysis.

The report also asserts that while mobile payment systems based on QR codes have seen “astonishing levels of adoption in China,” they are proving less successful in North America and Europe. NFC-based wallets, meanwhile, are “more attractive to both consumers and merchants” at least in part because of security features like tokenization and biometric authentication, Juniper Research says.

These security features can also make the mobile payments systems easier to use: iPhone X owners, for example, can verify payments just by looking at their phones, thanks to the device’s Face ID authentication system. Such features should help to further drive adoption of mobile payment systems going forward.