The Mobile Dimension

By some estimates, over the next couple of years more than 1 billion people will log in to the Internet for the first time, and most of these log-ins will be via mobile devices (like cell phones) and located in emerging countries. It is also estimated that by 2010, one in three Africans will own a mobile phone. With almost 280 million subscribers in Africa alone, mobile phones are recognized as instruments of change in finance, agriculture, media and, development work.

A recent Gartner report states that the number of mobile payment users worldwide is forecast to reach 73.4 million this year, says Gartner, up 70.4 percent from 2008 when there were 43.1 million users. The research firm predicts that the figure will reach more than 190 million in 2012, representing more than 3 percent of total mobile users worldwide. "Momentum in the mobile payment market gathered further in 2008 with a number of high-profile launches of mobile money transfer services in multiple markets, participation of major global institutions in near-field communication (NFC) payment trials, as well as new payment solutions entering the market," said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. She noted, however, that security concerns, regulatory issues, and an inadequate 'ecosystem' were still holding back growth in the sector.

Gartner defines a mobile payment as paying for a product or service using a mobile technology such as SMS, WAP, USSD or NFC. In terms of both number of users and transaction volumes, Gartner expects Asia-Pacific (including Japan) to maintain the largest share of the market. While mobile payment penetration in Western Europe is expected to rise from 0.9 percent in 2009 to 2.5 percent in 2012, and from 1.7 percent to 3 percent in North America; penetration in Asia-Pacific will rise from 2 percent in 2009 to 3.8 percent in 2012. Mobile payment penetration in EMEA and Latin America is also expected to exceed 3 percent by 2012.