Marketingcharts: Mobile payments now account for 1/5 of global transactions

In its recent Global Mobile Payments Index, Adyen reported that the share of payments made on mobile phones or tablets grew to 19.5% in December 2013, up from 17.5% in August and 55% year-on-year from 12.6% in December 2012. Mobile payments have taken an even bigger share in the travel industry, accounting for 29.4% of global transactions, and also outperforming the average share of direct sales (23%).

Of the five sales verticals analyzed by Adyen, gaming has the lowest share of mobile payments at 12%. However, gaming has the fastest growth in mobile payments, up 35% from August to December.

Meanwhile, in December, retail was the only industry among the five verticals where tablet payments exceeded mobile payments. Not only did the retail industry not follow the crowd, but it was also very different. Transactions on computers were more than twice as many as those on mobile phones. (15.9% vs. 7.1%)

The average retail transaction value on tablets ($122) is also higher than on computers ($92) and phones ($90). This is the only industry where tablets outstrip both phones and computers.

Overall, Adyen said that in the fourth quarter, iPads led all mobile payments with a 41% share, followed by iPhones (31.6%), followed by Android phones (20%), Android tablets (6.6%), and Windows mobile devices (0.6%). In December, Android phones accounted for 38.6% of mobile payments, while iPhones accounted for 60%. The gap (between Android and iPhone) is narrowing from 31.5 percentage points in April.

Adyen’s data is the latest to show that mobile devices are making huge inroads across multiple industries. For example, recent data shows:

• Almost 1/3 of Google searches come from mobile phones
• 65% of B2C marketing emails are read on mobile devices
• Most time spent on social networks occurs on mobile devices — this began sometime in the second half of 2012

Is it any wonder that marketers cite the continued growth of consumer use of mobile devices as the most significant factor influencing their digital marketing plans?

About the data: The Adyen Global Mobile Payment Index is based on Adyen’s global payment transaction data. Adyen processes payments for more than 3,500 medium and large companies and organizations that mainly operate multinational businesses. The company processed more than $14 billion in total transaction payments in 2013, of which $2.2 billion were mobile transactions.