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More than 252 million iPhone owners globally use Apple Pay, a figure that equates to 31% of the active iPhone base, says Loup Ventures, a Minneapolis-based venture-capital firm. A year ago, the figure was 25%.
That growth mostly is coming from international consumers, who Loup Ventures says account for 85% of Apple Pay users, versus 15% in the United States. When Apple Pay is activated in Germany later this year, the mobile-payment service will be available in 25 nations. Loup estimates that, of the total Apple Pay user base, 215 million hail from outside the United States, with 38 million in Apple’s home market. The total addressable market for Apple Pay is 2.7 billion consumers.
Still, only 20% of global smart-phone users actually use a smart phone as a wallet, Loup says. “Eventually, we believe that number will rise to above 80%,” it says in a blog post. This accounts for Apple Pay and its competitors, such as Google Pay, Samsung Pay, PayPal, Venmo, and Square.
Loup says Apple Pay is the only digital wallet offering all five common payment methods, comprising mobile, desktop, in-app, person-to-person, and point of sale.
Transaction growth, too, has increased for Apple Pay. Apple last week said transactions totaled more than 1 billion in the most recent quarter. “With the continued expansion into new markets and new partnerships with banks, we expect transaction growth of 200% over the next 12 months,” Loup says. More than 4,900 banks now support Apple Pay, which was introduced in the fall of 2014.
