Nearly Half of U.S. Consumers Have Used Mobile Payments

Nearly half of American adults report having made a mobile payment according to the Pew Research brief, “Who Uses Mobile Payments?”.  The increase in mobile payments user-ship in part correlates to smart phone ownership; Seventy-percent of U.S. adults now own smartphones, with the highest concentration being among millennials, ninety-percent owning smartphones. The survey spotlights that mobile payment users are more likely to be younger, more urban, and better educated compared to the general population. The generation gap in mobile payments is predicted to remain in the near term, as older respondents said they were unlikely to switch from their basic phones to smartphones within the next year.

The most common application of mobile payments is making a payment through a web browser or an app. Millennials in particular report being enticed toward paying with their smartphone by mobile-pay’s rewards and incentives. The obstacle most associated with mobile payment adoption continues to be concern over security and respondents overwhelmingly reported that they want and expect their data to be protected.
Read the Pew Research report here.