Mobile payments to reach 5 bln users by 2019 – Ovum

The total global user base for mobile payments is set to increase from an estimated 689.99 million users in 2014 to some 4.77 billion users in 2019, according to independent Australia-based telecom analyst firm Ovum.

In its “Mobile Payments Forecasts: 2014 – 2019”, Ovum said of the three segments covered in the forecast - m-commerce, person-to-person (P2P) mobile money transfers, and mobile proximity payments – m-commerce is the biggest in terms of users and transaction value.

Ovum forecasts 452.78 million global m-commerce users in 2014, rising to 2.07 billion users in 2019. It said the global transaction value of m-commerce will grow from US$50.92 billion in 2014 to US$693.36 billion by 2019.

“The rise of m-commerce is being driven by the widespread adoption of increasingly powerful smartphones with larger screens. More and more retailers are optimizing their sites for mobile shopping. Smartphones have become a platform that can support the whole shopping journey, from product search and discovery, through comparisons and recommendations, to payments.” 

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