A huge chunk of the world’s population will use mobile wallets make payments or send money next year, according to a new market forecast from Juniper Research.
In fact the firm says that a huge chunk of the population is already doing so, asserting that 1.6 billion consumers used mobile wallets at the end of last year. Looking ahead, Juniper Research says this number will rise to 2.1 billion consumers in 2019, an increase of 30 percent.
It sounds like good news for Apple Pay and Google Pay, but it’s particularly good news for PayPal, which Juniper Research says will lead the pack. In a report summary, the firm asserts that the US-based e-commerce company, “which has begun offering contactless payments instore in the US, had the greatest opportunities to develop a converged wallet on a worldwide basis.” Meanwhile, Alipay, the mobile payments platform offered by China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba, follows closely behind, according to Juniper Research’s analysis.