Worldwide Mobile Transactions Worth £109bn In 2012

Worldwide mobile transaction values will amount to more than $171.5 billion (£109.4bn) in 2012, an increase of 61.9 percent from the 2011 total of $105.9 billion (£67.6bn), according to research from Gartner.

However the greatest number of transactions will take place in Africa and Asia, with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology not making an impact before 2015.

Global growth

Gartner says that the mobile payments market will remain fragmented for the next two years due to different technologies, business models and regulatory conditions. Web and WAP transactions are set to account for 88 percent of total payments in North America and 80 percent in Western Europe by 2016, while SMS payments are expected to remain the primary method in developing countries.

“We expect global mobile transaction volume and value to average 42 percent annual growth between 2011 and 2016, and we are forecasting a market worth $617 billion with 448 million users by 2016,” said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. “This will bring opportunities for service and solution providers who will need to cater to the local demand patterns to customize their offerings.”

However sixty percent of all transactions will occur in Asia and Africa by 2016, with the latter region accounting for the most value due to money transfers. North America will be third, with the value of transactions double that of Western Europe. Eastern Europe will see the highest growth during the period.

NFC is currently being pushed by mobile operators, mobile manufacturers and financial service companies, but is not expected have a major impact on the market before 2015.

“NFC payment involves a change in user behavior and requires collaboration among stakeholders that includes banks, mobile carriers, card networks and merchants,” said Shen. “It takes time for both to happen, so we don’t expect NFC payments to come into the mass market before 2015. In the meantime, ticketing, rather than retail payment, will drive NFC transactions.”

However PayPal has been a critic of NFC technology, arguing that it will be out of date before it even appears on the market.

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