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Apple Pay adoption show no signs of abating, with an estimated 43% of iPhone users across the globe enabling the mobile-payments service, says Loup Ventures LLC in a research note released Tuesday. That’s up from 36% in September and 20% in December 2017.
Other estimates from the Minneapolis-based venture-capital firm suggest that 24% of U.S. iPhone owners have used Apple Pay. That’s less than the international rate of 47% in part because of greater acceptance on public transportation in China, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Russia, Loup Venture says. The overall installed base of iPhone users is 900 million, the firm says, which means there are approximately 383 million Apple Pay users
Loup Ventures analysis finds that Apple Pay utilization is higher in other countries than it is in the United States. “We also estimate, based on the number of active countries and number of use cases within those markets, that 12% of Apple Pay users are in the U.S., and 88% of users are international. For reference, we believe 21% of active iPhones are in the U.S.”
In January, Apple Inc. said it processed more than 1.8 billion Apple Pay transactions in its fiscal 2019 first quarter and that Apple Pay was live in 27 countries.
The prospects for Apple Pay growth are good, the report says. “Although we believe just under half (43%) of global iPhone owners use Apple Pay, that number will continue to grow as more retailers, universities, municipalities, and public transportation systems enable contactless payments and people begin to think of their phone as their wallet.”
Apple Pay arrived in Target Corp. stores this week following a January announcement that the retailer, along with Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, Speedway, and grocer Hy-Vee, would accept the mobile-payment service.
Loup Venture says Apple Pay likely won’t have a “measurable impact” on Apple’s services revenue.
Additionally, the note says the 1.8 billion transactions in the first quarter more than doubled the volume from a year prior but represented a step down from the 300% year-over-year growth in September 2018.
