New study finds consumers are embracing "next generation of payments"

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Feb 23, 2016

The fourth and latest annual MasterCard Mobile Payments Study tracked 2 million global social media posts about mobile payments across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Forums, Google+ and YouTube.

This is up from 85,000 posts in 2012 and more than double what it was in 2014. The survey found that, continuing a two-year trend, consumers were still positive about mobile payments technology.

“As more choices are made available to them, the conversation has evolved and consumers seem to be fully embracing the next generation of payments,” said Marcy Cohen, vice president of digital communications at MasterCard.

Nearly all, 97%, of mobile payments conversations were about digital wallets and centered on product launches, service improvements and how users are evaluating them. Outside of digital wallet conversations, conversations were driven by contactless cards (47%), followed by biometrics (33%,) personal payments (14%) and wearables (6%).

In the last quarter of the year, mentions of wearables were more than 30 times higher than in the first quarter of the year, potentially driven by Christmas.

Conversations are still driven by the safety and security of mobile payments, but 94% of consumers take a positive or neutral view of the services being offered to them.

Among the most engaging topics were the end of passwords and biometrics, with "selfie pay" (facial recognition) driving 55% of biometrics-focused conversation. Selfie pay has already been trialed in the US and is set to launch in 14 other countries this summer.