The number of people using banking services on their mobile phones is doubling every year according to new figures from ABI Research. It's forecast there'll be 407 million people worldwide carrying out banking transactions on their mobiles in 2015, up from 52.2 million last year. Most mobile banking customers currently come from the Asia-Pacific region, with growth in India particularly notable.
A separate ABI report notes the growth in mobile shopping, with about 8% of all online purchases expected to be made on mobile phones within five years. By 2015, shoppers worldwide are expected to use their mobiles to spend about $119 billion (£76 billion) on goods and services.
In the United States, mobile online shopping rose from $396 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2009, while the mobile online shopping market in Japan exceeded $10 billion last year. Sales in Europe are expected to exceed US sales by the end of 2010.