90 Percent of Global Mobile Users Have Purchased Goods or Services with Their Mobile Phones

BuzzCity publishes its Mobile Money report

11 March 2010: The results of BuzzCity’s fifth global survey investigating consumer mobile behaviour, are released today and focus on the global mobile payments market. The survey questioned 1,798 mobile users across the Americas, Asia, Africa, Western Europe and the Middle East on their use of the mobile as both a banking and payments device and found that 90 per cent had used their mobile to directly purchase products or services.

The survey examines two key themes in the ‘mobile money’ market. Firstly – the use of the mobile as a platform for banking services. 47% of respondents did not know whether their banks offered banking services and an additional 15% were aware of the offer but had not taken it up. This would indicate that banks still have some way to go in educating consumers about the availability and benefits of mobile banking services.

The second area to explore was the use of the mobile platform for transactions. The survey shows that although most of these purchases (68%) are related to mobile phone use, such as mobile content and prepaid airtime, users also buy other mainstream products with their mobiles. In fact, 23% have bought from online stores, paid a bill, bought prepaid utilities and made bookings – all through their mobile.

BuzzCity CEO KF Lai said, “There are clear opportunities for mobile transactions to grow as users, in this and previous surveys, indicate that they want to be able to use their mobiles to buy more goods such as books, music, travel services, household utilities and electronic appliances.

“Although there have been some developments in transforming the mobile into a banking and payment device, with 29% of the global mobile population still without access to a bank account and 56% without a credit or debit card, banking and mobile transaction providers are overlooking a much wider audience. The potential opportunities are huge but the diverse challenges faced by the global mobile audience must not be overlooked – mobile consumers have money to spend but they must be provided with the opportunity to do so.”

 The BuzzCity survey has identified three areas where progress is needed:

  • User education about mobile banking services to increase uptake
  • Increased partnerships between banks, carriers and merchants to increase the number of products available for purchase
  • The development of new services to enable mobile transactions for those without access to traditional banking facilities

-Ends-


For more information please contact:
Speed Communications on behalf of BuzzCity
+44 (0) 207 842 3200
buzzcity@speedcommunications.com

To view the details of report, please visit the website here

About BuzzCity

BuzzCity is a mobile media company offering brand owners and agencies access to a global advertising network on the mobile internet. The network is made up of publishers from across the world and BuzzCitys own mobile media properties. As a leading international player, BuzzCity has developed in-depth knowledge of the mobile consumer and provides marketers with clear opportunities to reach this audience via its advertising and publisher programmes.

Additional information can be found at www.buzzcity.com.