Mobile Payments Will Reach $1 Billion This Year
Posted: July 15, 2013 by Alex Chan
According to the latest study conducted by eMarketer, mobile payments will pass the threshold of $1 billion this year. By the year 2017, that number will rise to an amazing $58 billion. eMarketer defines mobile payments as "transactions for goods and services made by mobile phones, scanning, tapping, swiping, or checking the phone at the point of the sale". Mobile payments differ from mobile commerce which is a term for buying items on a smartphone.
The growth of mobile payments has hit a minor setback due to the constant rise in technologies with no definite system for accepting payments. The analyst company believes that the slow progress of mobile payments will continue up to 2016.
Mobile payments are on a slow rise for several reasons. The lack of a standard system due to competing technologies prevents merchants from accepting any single payment solution. Despite setbacks, there has been progress with mobile payments. Starbucks has accepted and implemented mobile payments in their shops. This is a big step in building trust for other mobile payment solutions. With this new implementation, eMarketer believes that people will start using their mobile phones for larger purchases in the future.
