The digital age is coming quicker than some expected, and the growing popularity of digital payments and currency continues to be a driving factor.
New research has found that Apple Pay has surpassed MasterCard in its dollar value of transactions annually with just over $6 trillion, and it is inching closer to Visa.
The data comes from TradingPlatforms, which released the comparisons showing that Apple Pay was the second most used digital payment system, behind Visa, which totaled around $10 trillion in transactions per year.
This now marks the first time that Apple Pay, which includes Apple Card, has surpassed MasterCard, which totaled $4.8 trillion in transactions.
Mobile payments have become increasingly common throughout the last half-decade as people are more likely to leave their homes without their wallets than without their phones, according to Bain surveys, the Wall Street Journal reported.
TradingPlatforms finance expert Edith Reads shared that Apple Pay has continued to grow in popularity, becoming "the go-to payment method for consumers and businesses alike."
"The fact that it has now processed more transactions than MasterCard is a testament to its popularity," Reads said.
Other notable forms of digital payment methods included Google's G Play, which came in at fifth with $2.5 trillion in transactions, and Alipay, which placed third at exactly $6 trillion.
"Apple Pay has an undue advantage and benefits from their monopoly on iPhone NFC hardware," Reads noted. "We expect to see Apple Pay continue to grow in popularity and market share in the coming years."
While the numbers appear to show the annual transactions for the different forms of digital payments, it was not specified whether or not this was in the last 12 calendar months or during an unspecified financial year.
Apple has long been pushing that Apple Pay would become as popular as it is today, but for some, it was a little early. Chief Executive Tim Cook had said previously that 2015 would be "the year of Apple Pay" and that it would kill cash in 2016, the Journal reported.
But that wasn't the case, as, by 2018, Cook admitted that it hadn't taken the jump they expected it to.
"Does it matter if we get there in two years, three years, five years?" Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue asked five years ago. "Ultimately, no."
But now, the company has shared that 75% of iPhone users have Apple Pay set up on their device, and upwards of 90% of retailers accept the service.
Related
Related
