Mobile Payment Apps – Efficiency Of Modern Day Banking

The Mobile Payment apps market is enjoying favorable attention owing to the increased use of smartphones and rising mobile-based internet penetration. According to 2015 statistics, 80% of the users have a smartphone.

There are multiple meanings for the term ‘Mobile Payments’. For example, some people prefer to use their smartphones over their laptops for making purchases or merchants prefer swiping cards on their phone to accept the purchase. Application developers play a phenomenal role in the ecosystem of mobile payments. To make transactions from mobile phones, applications are used as an interface. Many companies have developed software and applications, some of the leading developers are Furtomo, Intuit, Emerson and PayPal. There is a substantial increase in digital goods and buying apps which is leading to increased use of mobile devices for transactions. To those without credit cards, mobile payment apps appeal greatly. This is a huge opportunity for the developers in the mobile payment apps market. P2P apps are seen to have been utilized 49% on dining. Other purposes of P2P applications include 44% utility for gifts, 43% for merchandise, 36% for household bills, 36% for transportation and 19% for rent payment. The competitors in this field vary from big IT companies to small startups.

Mobile banking services and mobile payment apps along with telecom regulation were influential in connecting the world’s underbanked population. Paper and bank transactions take a significant amount of time as compared to mobile payments service which can be used anywhere with very low processing time. Mobile payment apps require no hassle in signing up and requires minimum additional input as most of the information is already available on the phone. Even a layman can use mobile payments app easily. Furthermore, the market is looking forward to attractive revenue with an increasing growth of online gaming and social networking sites which are seeking ways to monetize what they offer digitally.

North America is proving as a mature market as it sees an increase in the number of mobile wallet users each passing day. The 2016 survey revealed a trend of consumers using digital wallet which was about 32%. Also, approximately 20%, i.e. the majority share of utility was recorded for online bill payment. On the other hand, European regions provide fierce competition for Mobile Wallets. Mobile operators of 15 countries in Western Europe launched more than 36 mobile wallets in the year 2015. Customers, Using their mobile devices can manage their payment account or gift card through payment solutions which are a closed loop. Nevertheless, there is a limit on the transaction of money at a given time on P2P payments. For example, there is a limit of $10000 per day on google wallet.

The economics of banking over the last 10 years have been altered drastically because of the emergence of mobile and branchless banking solutions. Mobile payment apps offer more speed, efficiency and effectiveness as compared to traditional forms of banking. Also, it requires no documentation for the transfer of funds from one bank to the other, making it convenient for the user.