UK Potential for Mobile Payments

More than half of the UK's 16-24 year-olds (56%) would be interested in using their phones to make what it terms 'micropayments', buying small items such as public transport tickets or vending machine goods, according to new research from TNS. Around a third (32%) are 'very interested'.

Among older groups interest is significantly lower - overall around 30% of mobile phone users said they were interested. Nevertheless, given that the technology is not yet available in the UK, the figures are impressive and the potential seems huge.

Transport fares are the most popular purchase - 49% of those interested in using the phone for payments said the most likely use was for car parking, while 46% opted for bus fares / tickets. Just one in five said they would buy sweets or snacks from a shop or vending machine with their phone.

Younger people were the most likely to find themselves short of small change 'most days' of the week (one fifth, versus only 9% of all adults).

According to Tim Pritchard, TNS' Head of Technology, 'The use of mobile phones for micropayments is growing in countries like Japan and Korea, with new services launched that turn handsets into 'mobile wallets', enabling people to use their mobiles to pay for tickets and goods from shops, to check in at airports, or to act as a membership card or even an electronic key. Comparatively, the ability to use mobile phones for payments is still very limited in the UK, with some availability to make online payments for mobile services such as ringtones or downloads, or hybrid services like the use of SMS to make congestion charge payments'.

Pritchard adds that mobile owners in the UK are receptive to the idea: 'As long as secure and convenient systems for making payments are in place, the proportion of people interested in using this type of service is very likely to continue to grow'. However, he believes that mobile operators need to move fast with growing competition from the likes of the Oyster card, used in London to pay for public transport fares'.

TNS Omnibus interviewed 992 adults aged 16 and above between 26th and 30th December 2004. TNS is online at www.tns-global.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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