CONSIDERING that the spread of the coronavirus can be deterred by avoiding physical contact and reducing the exchange of physical items from one person to another, more consumers are resorting to online or digital payments when making purchases.
In fact, according to research data published by Finnish website Sijoitusrahastot, digital payment transactions will continue to grow in the near future.
The data showed that digital payments grew 21% year-on-year (yoy) in 2020, and is set to grow at a 13.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach US$8.17 tril by 2024.
Digital commerce was spotted as the market’s top segment, which was estimated to reach a total transaction value of US$2.93 tril in 2020, marking a 4.8% growth yoy.
In the period between 2020 and 2024, it is projected to grow at an 8.9% CAGR to reach US$4.11 tril.
China is expected to take the lead globally in digital payments overall as well as in digital commerce. In the former, the country was set to generate US$2.31 tril in 2020 while in the latter it is projected to rake in US$1.17 tril.
For Asia as a whole, Statista predicted that digital payments would reach US$2.88 tril in 2020. According to McKinsey, Asia has outpaced all regions globally with regard to payments revenue growth over the past few years.
As the top contributor to global payments revenue, it generated close to $900 bil in 2019. It was almost half the global total per McKinsey’s Global Payments Map.
Moreover, a report from Data Search Consulting offers higher figures, asserting that the digital payments industry in APAC generated US$1.9 tril in revenue in 2019. According to the source, China contributed two-thirds of this total.
Meanwhile, based on data from Capgemini, the Asia Pacific had a growth rate of 24.7% in digital payments between 2018 and 2019. In contrast, Europe grew at a 12.2% rate between 2018 and 2019 while North America grew at 5.6%. The global growth rate at the time was 14.1%.
Based on the aforementioned Data Search Consulting report, the use of digital payments in Asia during COVID season grew by 2.5 times compared to pre-pandemic figures. Moreover, 75% of users in APAC say they plan to continue using digital payments even post-COVID-19 era. – Jan 30, 2021
