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Mastercard’s latest survey on the global mobile payment landscape reveals trends that Asian consumers are open to mobile payments.
Mobile payment is gaining popularity for both consumers and businesses. On the one hand, tech companies are coming up with interesting payment gadgets and technology such as Square, Paypal Here and Near Field Communication (NFC) to facilitate better and ‘safer’ transactions on the mobile gateway. On the other hand, mobile customers are beginning to open up to the new idea of transactions on-the-go.
Mastercard did a recent survey on the global mobile payment landscape and revealed surprising findings on mobile payment readiness in 34 countries. (source: Mastercard)
Using six metrics: consumer readiness, environment, financial services, infrastructure, mobile commerce cluster and regulation, Mastercard has come up a Mobile Payment Readiness Index (MPRI) that measures the level of readiness for mobile payment adoption on a scale of 1 to 100 in each country. The data is also a cumulation of factors based on person to person (P2P), mobile e-commerce (mCommerce), and mobile payments at the point of sale (POS).
Source: Mastercard
Surprisingly, Singapore tops the list for being the most ready country in consumer acceptance of mobile payment with an MPRI of 45.6. Following closely behind is Canada and the United States with 42.0 and 41.4 respectively.
Consumer readiness. Kenya tops the other 33 countries in terms of existing consumer readiness towards the adoption of mobile. Due to popularity of P2P services, 89% of Kenyans are familiar with mobile payments and 68% of them make mobile P2P transactions frequently.
Environment. In the environment component, the United States leads the rest with as a result of high household expenditure per capita of around $33,000 as compared to the Index average of approximately $11,000. Other countries that scored well include the United Arab Emirates (UAE), France and Canada.
Financial services. Given Japan’s well-developed finance sector, the country leads the financial component. Statistics also reveal that the average Japanese holds 15 payment cards.
Infrastructures. Singapore leads this component with a mobile penetration index that is higher than the average at 100% of the population covered by a mobile network. Following closely behind is China, with the highest number of mobile phones of any country in the index at a total of 859,000,000 mobile phone subscriptions.
Mobile commerce cluster. With great collaboration with banks, mobile networks and the government, Canada is in the lead for this component. Japan follows closely behind.
Regulation. Well known for her efficient regulatory system, Singapore tops the other countries in the Regulation Component. Singapore’s high score rated at 84 out of 100 is a result of the cumulative effects of its well-developed laws relating to ICT.
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