Three in four iPhone users in the USA have now activated Apple Pay (75%), a rise of 25 percentage points from 50% in 2020, according to research by Loup Ventures.

The research also shows that these adoption rates compare with just 20% in 2017 and 10% in 2016 after the official launch of Apple Pay in 2014.

“The activation rate of Apple Pay has begun to resemble the classic trajectory of tech adoption, which suggests that what is now a tiny slice of Apple’s pie can get much bigger, along with the overall market for contactless payments,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.

“Such tap-to-pay spending accounts for nearly 20% of Visa’s face-to-face transactions in the US, but the rates in big cities have climbed above 25%, with the Bay Area at 30% and New York reaching 45%. Apple Pay is also the top payment app for teenagers, according to investment firm Piper Sandler. As teens and cities go, so goes the nation.”

Apple itself says that “90% of retailers across the US now take Apple Pay. The number that accepted contactless payments when the service was introduced was 3%,” according to the WSJ’s report.

“The more places that accept Apple Pay, the more value the service provides, and the more people upload their credit and debit cards to the Wallet app. They can use Apple Pay to order stuff online, send money to friends and buy things in a physical store by holding it near a contactless reader.

“The fees Apple collects from banks whose cardholders use Apple Pay amount to less than 1% of the company’s overall revenue, according to [Loup Ventures analyst] Mr Munster’s estimates, but Apple generates so much profit from iPhone sales that even billions of dollars would be a rounding error. Apple Pay exists to improve the iPhone experience.”

Piper Sandler published a survey showing that Apple Pay is the most popular payments app with Generation Z teenagers in the US in April.

Apple Pay went live in Malaysia and Qatar earlier this month.

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