Mobile payments ‘to overtake credit cards’ as preferred ways to pay in online commerce by 2019
United Nations report notes the rapid growth of e-payment systems like Alipay and PayPal, and sees blockchain-based systems also rising in prominence
Online, mobile and digital currency payment systems are set to overtake credit and debit cards as the most popular ways to pay in e-commerce worldwide by 2019, a report by a United Nations body on international trade and development said on Tuesday.
The share of credit and debit cards in global payments is expected to drop to 46 per cent by 2019 from 51 per cent three years ago, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its “Information Economy Report 2017: Digitalisation, Trade and Development”, citing figures from payment processing company Worldpay.
So-called e-wallet systems like Alipay, run by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, and Tenpay, run by Alibaba rival Tencent, as well as the US-based PayPal service have spread rapidly, driven by the explosive growth of e-commerce.
In China alone, the size of the mobile payment market had reached 23 trillion yuan (US$3.5 trillion) by the end of the second quarter, up 22.5 per cent from the previous quarter, according to Analysys International, a Chinese internet research firm.
Alipay recently signed up coffee chain Starbucks to allow e-payment at all 2,800 Starbucks locations in China, while at a KFC fast food restaurant in China, diners can pay via Alipay using facial recognition technology.
The UNCTAD report said that in developed regions, digital payments are dominated by credit and debit cards, followed by e-wallets. But in some developing countries, where credit cards are rarely the most important payment method, new online and mobile payment methods are catching on.