Nearly 1bn to use NFC payments by 2019

Ovum forecast
FORECAST: Analysts at Ovum predict a major increase in proximity payments by 2019

A total of 1.09bn people will be making mobile proximity payments globally by 2019, of which 939.10m will be made through NFC, Ovum’s new m-payments forecast reveals. The total transaction value of mobile proximity payments  — both NFC and non-NFC — will grow from US$4.77bn to $141.21bn over the same time period.

The analysts define mobile proximity payments as purchases made using a mobile device when the user is at or near the point of sale, using NFC or alternatives such as QR codes.

The total global user base for mobile payment segments including online mobile payments and P2P transfers on a mobile device will increase from an estimated 689.99m users in 2014 to 4.77bn users in three years’ time, the findings add.

“Factors driving growth include wider merchant support for NFC across point-of-sale acceptance infrastructure, which in the US is being helped by the upgrades to EMV,” says Eden Zoller, principal analyst of consumer services and payments at Ovum.

“The adoption of host card emulation (HCE) is also helping, providing a more flexible way of implementing NFC. At the same time, NFC is being championed more widely across the ecosystem by players such as Apple, Google, PayPal and Samsung.”

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