Survey finds scant interest in P2P mobile payments

Subscribers in seven developed countries spanning three continents express scant interest in person-to-person mobile payments according to a new survey issued by ABI Research. Consumer in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea all indicate little enthusiasm for the possibilities of making mobile-to-mobile payments--while ABI reports some differences between age groups and countries, it notes that just 16 percent of Western Europeans classify themselves as "extremely" or "very" interested in mobile P2P payments, while in the U.S., the percentage drops to 9 percent. Consumers in the three Asia Pacific markets indicate the strongest interest at 34 percent.

"It's tough to make a convincing case for mobile P2P in most developed markets," said ABI Research senior analyst Mark Beccue in a prepared statement. "We believe it will have minimum impact in [the U.S. and Europe] because some forms of electronic P2P such as PayPal have operated there for several years with relatively low market penetration; and because these markets boast extensive ATM and banking networks, giving consumers easy access to cash to conveniently conduct P2P transactions. In parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America which generally lack good tools for convenient P2P transactions other than face-to-face, mobile payment methods will be huge."

For more on the ABI survey:
- read this release

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