Blog | 4 min read
Copy linkThe mobile wallet market is slated to increase at a 25% CAGR between 2022 and 2028. One of the major drivers for this universal rise is the increasing number of smartphone users globally. As per Statista, global smartphone subscriptions in 2022 have already *surpassed six billion, with the highest number of subscribers in China, India and the US.
Diverse demand drivers
Since the penetration rate of smartphones is under 70% in many highly-populated nations, including China and India, the market retains high growth potential. The demand is also fueled by the availability of affordable smartphones, the pandemic-triggered work-from-home regime, and the hybrid schooling model that combines online and in-person classes in many geographies due.
Going forward, these trends are expected to increase the usage of mobile wallets. According to **Tracxn, there were 1,385 digital wallet companies in April 2022. Considering the substantial growth opportunities in the mobile wallet market, new digital wallet startups are emerging periodically to tap the opportunity.
With features, offers, and incentives that promote the usage of mobile wallets, these startups are steadily grabbing consumer attention. Not surprisingly, startups such as PhonePe, Gojek, Grab and others are recording major market traction. The rising number of startups is poised to make the global mobile wallet market even more competitive, propelling its overall growth.
Other factors driving greater growth on the consumer side are an easy-to-use interface, personalized payment instruments, the ability to provide targeted promotions and money-on-the-go feature. On the merchant side, the acceptance infrastructure is low-cost helping merchant penetration so easily. The wallets have the ability to boost footfalls majorly unlike other payment instruments.
However, unlike other bank-led payment instruments, wallets lack interoperability. Now, with consumer preferences shifting to wallets, it’s time for payment ecosystems to make way for mobile wallet interoperability. Further, cross-border acceptance of mobile wallets will go a long way in improving user experience and boosting global spends.
Building interoperability:
Wallet interoperability has been attempted in various forms. The first attempt was made by payment schemes like VISA/Mastercard, which launched a companion card to wallet. It had moderate success as it defeated the key proposition of user experience.
As wallets continue to gain popularity, we would see technology companies building platforms to bring interoperable solutions. However, the key challenges remain with respect to providing standardization in operations and transaction processing across multiple wallet programs.
At TerraPay, we believe the next-generation interoperability platform for wallets will preserve the original wallet proposition, get wallets merchant-specific customers and involve alternative payment method aggregators while offering low-cost, easy-to-implement functions as well as transparent communication. TerraPay provides customers with all of the above, catering to the vastly different wallet users, and their usage, compared to traditional payment operators. As a unique cross-border mobile wallet payment solution, Request-to-Pay is the most recent example of we, at TerraPay, are powering the acceptance of mobile wallets across various merchant networks, irrespective of the country. Together with our partners at Network International, we are enabling interoperability for 160 mobile wallets and growing.
With innovative and interoperable payment solutions like Request-to-Pay, we are not only helping businesses grow their customer base and scale globally, but also fulfilling our goal of financial inclusion.
To know more, customers can connect with us at: terrapay.com
