Mobile Payments to Grow 601 Percent by 2017

Mobile payments will grow 601 percent to $90.05 billion in 2017, up from $12.84 billion in 2012, according to Forrester Research, driven by mobile proximity payments, mobile peer-to-peer payments and remittances, and retail/travel mobile commerce via smartphones. Forrester says mobile proximity payments totaled $549 million in 2012, which likely will increase 93.1 percent to $1.06 billion in 2013 and post a compound yearly growth rate of 49.4 percent. “We expect the fastest growth to be with lower-cost purchases and in contexts where mobile proximity payments offer greater efficiency and convenience over other methods of payments,” says Forrester analyst Denee Carrington. She also says mobile peer-to-peer payments and other remittances will not grow as fast as proximity payments because they have not generated sufficient profit for companies that have invested in it. Meanwhile, consumers will first need to try it and become comfortable with it before there can be an increase in mobile shopping products and services and they become convenient, Carrington notes.

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