A survey conducted by ABI Research in November 2009 has found little interest in making person-to-person payments via mobile phones. The survey – which was conducted in Germany, France, the UK, the USA, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea – revealed that just 9% of Americans were either 'extremely' or 'very' interested in mobile P2P payments. The overall results for Western Europe showed 16% of respondents having a keen interest, although 34% of consumers in the three Asia Pacific countries showed similar interest.
Senior analyst Mark Beccue from ABI Research said "It’s tough to make a convincing case for mobile P2P in most developed markets. This survey confirms ABI Research’s assessment of mobile P2P’s potential in the United States and Europe. We believe it will have minimum impact in these markets because some forms of electronic P2P such as PayPal have operated there for several years with relatively low market penetration; and because these markets boast extensive ATM and banking networks, giving consumers easy access to cash to conveniently conduct P2P transactions."
These findings echo the recent conversation that The Fonecast had on Wednesday at Mobile World Congress with Mary Carol Harris of Visa Europe.