MEF, the global community for mobile content and commerce released the first report in its Global Consumer Insights Series on Mobile Money. The report analyzes data from 10,000 respondents in 13 countries, highlighting regional and global trends in mobile money uptake and how it is stimulating growth across the mobile value chain.
In 2013, 15 percent of mobile media users made some form of mobile payment to make a purchase. The largest group of these users (7 percent of the total sample) did so via a mobile wallet, especially those based on Near Field Communications (NFC) technology.
The report, carried out in partnership with On Device Research, highlights the importance of mobile money users to the overall m-commerce market, as this group is 26 percent more likely to purchase via mobile. Globally, 91 percent made some form of mobile purchase in 2013 as opposed to 65 percent of all mobile consumers.
Mobile money users also spend more on individual purchases. They are 10 percent less likely to make low value payments and 14 percent more likely to make mid-value purchases.
And mobile money users don’t just buy more than the average mobile user. They do more of everything. They are 12 percent more likely to scan barcodes, 11 percent more likely to make charitable donations and 10 percent more likely to use location based services.
The study also reveals the importance of network speed to the uptake of mobile money. A quarter of users claim they don’t make mobile payments because ‘the network is too slow.’ That might help explain why fewer than one in seven mobile media users have made some form of mobile payment.
Conversely, those connected to faster 4G networks are much more engaged: almost two in three (64 percent) have made a mobile payment.
