Social media payments and biometric authentication continue to reshape mobile money transfers, security and processing, according to new reports from the Hampshire, United Kingdom-based Juniper Research and Denver-based Acuity Market Intelligence.
Juniper Research revealed that mobile money transfers grew by nearly 150% in 2015 to more than 13 billion transfers, and some social media firms are experiencing significant service usage increases.
The new report, "Mobile Money Transfer & Remittances: Domestic & International Markets 2015-2020," observed that U.S. social payment service Venmo has experienced traffic valued at almost $1 billion per quarter.
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In addition, some popular social media companies are introducing their own services. For example, Snapchat partnered with Square to deliver a person-to-person offering, while Facebook launched a nationwide service in the U.S. last month.
Juniper projects mobile funds transfers that take place via these types of service providers to generate $2 billion this year and $4 billion by 2018.
Meanwhile, within five years, all smartphones will include embedded biometric sensors as standard features, according to a new market forecast by Acuity Market Intelligence.
Acuity Market Intelligence reports that mobile biometrics are forecasted to generate $34.6 billion in annual revenue in 2020, and will significantly disrupt the global payment market by providing alternative means of securing and processing mobile transactions.
Acuity forecasts biometrics will lower the risk and cost of payment processing by authenticating nearly 65% of all mCommerce transactions in 2020. This represents 126 billion biometric payment transactions generating more than $1.1 trillion in consumer mCommerce purchase value.
Acuity forecasts that the total biometric transaction volume, including both payment and non-payment transactions, will exceed 800 million annually by 2020, with 35% of these transactions authenticated via biometrics embedded in mobile devices and 65% via biometric apps downloaded by consumers.
"As mobile transaction volume increases, so too will the number of transactions that require biometric authentication," Maxine Most, Acuity Market Intelligence principal and lead analyst, said in a statement. "This increased level of security will be driven by the rise of identity theft and fraud, and new payment, service and information ecosystems that offer greater anonymity to consumers and by consumer desire to maintain greater control over personal data and enhance their privacy."
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Roy Urrico
Roy W. Urrico specializes in articles about financial technology and services for Credit Union Times, as well as ghostwriting, copywriting, and case studies. Also: writer/editor of a semi-annual newsletter for Association for Financial Technology since 1997 and history projects funded by the U.S Interior Department, National Park Service and Warren County (N.Y.).
