WorldPay has revealed its latest data in a whitepaper that showed that paying using smartphones is favored.
According to the latest research findings from online and mobile payments and risk services provider, WorldPay, consumers around the world are using their smartphones as an alternative method of paying with credit cards on an increasing basis when it comes to buying video games.
The whitepaper revealed that gamers like the opportunity to use their gadgets instead of plastic cards.
The whitepaper was entitled “Video Games Payment Preferences” and it included the data regarding the outcome of the survey responses from 7,554 gamers who have purchased a video game online. It asked them about the frustrations that they experienced throughout this process, as well as about their interest in alternative methods of paying, such as the use of mobile payments. Among the respondents, 51 percent were using those alternatives, when compared to 46 percent who were still using debit and credit cards for buying these products.
It should be noted that mobile payments were one category of the alternative payments in the WorldPay survey.
Aside from mobile payments, other methods that were included in the alternative category were real money based e-wallets, credits and points based systems, direct transfers and direct debits, mobile phone carrier billing, and cash vouchers.
The study also determined that the highest amount of use for alternative and mobile payments was from consumers residing within emerging marketplaces. It determined that 71 percent of gamers in Russia were using alternatives, while the same could be said of 79 percent of the consumers in China.
WorldPay explained that e-wallets have been a considerable driving force behind the increase in the use of alternative and mobile payments. Among all overall transactions, this category made up 27 percent of the total. This was true regardless of whether gamers were purchasing new games, or expansions or modifications to existing video games. Although this may represent only just slightly over one quarter of all of the transaction types in terms of volume, the company pointed out that this should still be taken very seriously as it is also an extremely rapidly growing category.
What it showed was that businesses are not keeping up with what consumers want from mobile commerce and payments. It has indicated that 68 percent of Americans have found themselves in a situation in which they would want to buy something but they didn’t have any cash on them. Another 30 percent stated that this happens to them frequently. However, PayPal did not include any data about the attitudes regarding business owners for accepting smartphone payments within the report.