Paym the UK industry led mobile payment system that enables person-to-person (P2P) mobile payments has announced that it has reached $110 million (£70 million) since its launch in the spring of 2014. Supported by 17 banks and building societies, the potential user base covers more than nine out of 10 UK current accounts but to date only a fraction of this base has begun to use the service.
Though overall payments are low, the service maintains quarterly growth highlighting that consumer adoption of mobile payments is far more drawn out than industry estimates or expectations. According to Paym, even the primary use cases for the service have evolved over time and most recently, the most common reason for using Paym was to pay friends and family for gas (25%), helping with bills (22%), paying back IOUs (22%), household costs (19%), and splitting lunch or dinner (19%).
Commenting on the results, Craig Tillotson, managing director, Paym said,
“Paym continues to grow and it’s interesting to see we’re using it more for weekday money management as well as Saturday’s socializing.”
While the UK mobile payments landscape has seen a surge of attention since the launch of Apple Pay in July, it is clear that British consumers are not yet fully convinced or provided the incentive to shift even P2P payments away from traditional methods and on to mobile payment services. The continued growth and increased consumer mobile payment awareness do however suggest eventual broad adoption, but significant traction remains a few years away.
Overview by Tristan Hugo-Webb, Associate Director, Global Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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