Apple Pay Captures 90 Percent of Mobile Payment Transactions in Supported Markets

Apple’s mobile payment system, Apple Pay, is now being used in 20 mobile markets around the world, and it appears that it continues to be the preferred contactless mode of payment wherever the service is supported. Merchants and other establishments who have struck a partnership with Apple to provide support for Apple Pay are claiming that the service is comfortably making up 90 percent of all mobile payment transactions in countries where Apple Pay is made available.

Jennifer Bailey, the vice president of Apple’s mobile payments segment, is even going as far as declaring that Apple Pay is the future of daily consumer spending during the Money 20/20 conference that is being held right now in the city of Las Vegas in Nevada. Bailey also took the opportunity to reveal that the service is launching in additional mobile markets such as Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates this week. 

She also pointed out that in the 20 mobile markets that have support for Apple Pay, 4,000 issues across the globe now work with the mobile payment system. In other words, there are now 4,000 issuers of debit cards and credit cards that allow their respective cards to be uploaded and used through Apple Pay. To put 20 mobile markets into proper context, that number is equal to about 70 percent of the total volume of card transactions being completed in the whole planet. 

Furthermore, Apple Pay is now at over half of all retail outlets in America, including 67 of the top 100 retailers in the country. Recent deployments were completed or ongoing for supermarket chain Albertson (with 2,300 outlets), as well as Dick’s Sporting Goods (with 675 stores).

Bailey also explained that Apple Pay will continue to expand its reach, not only geographically, but also with regards to use cases. While it is true that the service is already gaining traction among retailers, Apple is envisioning the contactless mode of payment to also have similar capabilities with Venmo, essentially allowing people to send cash instantly, possible by way of iMessage, Siri, and other supported channels. The good news is that this will likely come true sooner than most people realize -- as a matter of fact, Apple’s employees are already utilizing a beta version that is capable of quick and secure fund transfer transactions. This feature will probably be rolled out before the end of the year, through an iOS 11 software update.