The total number of consumers globally making contactless mobile payments with a smartphone or other NFC-enabled device will exceed one billion for the first time by 2024, rising from 782m in 2022, according to a Juniper Research forecast.

Increasing investment in contactless payment acceptance infrastructure such as software-only point-of-sale (sPOS) solutions, consumer demand and growing smartphone ownership in emerging regions will be key drivers of this growth, the researchers say.

“Smartphone penetration rates among emerging regions such as Asia Pacific will exceed 99% by 2024, enabling an additional 67 million individuals to adopt mobile payments as they will possess the necessary hardware to conduct NFC payments via their handsets,” the researchers explain.

“The research predicts that increasing consumer demand for convenient and frictionless payment methods is also accelerating this growth, as consumers only require a smartphone or NFC-enabled device to use contactless payments, thus eliminating the need to carry multiple payment cards.

“The advent of softPOS, which enables smartphones to accept NFC payments, will quickly increase contactless acceptance infrastructure, owing to the lower cost associated with softPOS in comparison to traditional contactless POS, as it eliminates the need for additional hardware.”

Juniper Research forecast in September that global contactless transaction values will reach US$10tn by 2027.

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