Nearly one in five U.S. consumers now use their smartphone to make online payments, according to a new report from ACI Worldwide and Aite Group. Through a survey, the organizations found that 17% of people in the United States are now users of these so-called “mobile wallets,” nearly three times as many as the 6% who were doing so in 2014 when the company last conducted similar research.
Adoption is even higher in several European countries, led by the 25% of people in Spain who pay with smartphones. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, remains somewhat of a laggard with just 14% of consumers using a mobile wallet.
Regardless of the country-to-country differences, collectively “consumers in the U.S. and Europe are catching up with those in fast-growing economies in Asia and Latin America, where mobile wallets have already become the dominant payment platform,” said ACI Worldwide in a statement.
Mark Ranta, head of digital banking solutions, ACI Worldwide, points to launch of Apple Pay, which celebrates its three-year anniversary this month, with kickstarting the popularity.
“What we are seeing is a tipping point regarding adoption, which can be attributed to consumers worldwide now almost exclusively using payment-enabled devices, as older models have cycled out, with a few exceptions,” said Mark Ranta, head of digital banking solutions at ACI Worldwide.
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