Two leading payment providers, PayPal and Barclaycard, have released statistics demonstrating the rise in usage of mobile and contactless payment methods in the UK.
PayPal, which claims a million UK residents now use its services to make payments or send money using their mobile phones, was one of the first to become involved with m-payments in 2005, and the first to launch an iPhone app in 2008. The firm expects global mobile transactions in 2010 to be 30x higher than in 2008, reaching over US$700 million.
Petra Jung, head of mobile for PayPal in the UK, said: "We're seeing the start of a revolution in the way we pay. People have talked about 'mobile money' for some time, but our figures show real traction in the amount of money PayPal's UK customers are spending from their mobile phones."
Separately, Barclays is claiming another milestone, with over a million contactless transactions carried out this year in the UK. Since January there has been a 217 per cent rise in monthly payments, with over 150,000 processed in September alone.
Stuart Neal, head of payment acceptance for Barclaycard, says: "The latest statistics on contactless payment show we are reaching a tipping point. The number of terminals has gone from 25,000 at the beginning of 2010, to 42,500 today." Article