Apple Pay accounted for 1 percent of digital payments in a month after launch: report

Mobile payments have been around for a while now, but the increasing adoption of Apple Pay could soon transform it into a worldwide phenomenon. A report by ITG, which is an independent execution and research broker, focuses on the new Apple Pay and says that it accounted for 1 percent of digital payments in the month of November. In comparison, Google Wallet, which launched in 2011, accounted for only 4 percent of digital payments in the same month. This goes to show that Apple Pay has found an encouraging number of early adopters, considering the fact that the service is only available to Apple customers with the latest hardware and it is currently supported by limited merchants. Many might argue that the novelty factor involved in the new Touch ID payments system could have caused the rise in Apple Pay use. But the report also suggests that customers seem to be returning to Apple Pay for future transactions. A strong 60 percent of users were reported to have used the service on multiple days through out November. Apple Pay customers also seem to have a good experience with the service, as the report says that it is being used nearly 1.4 times per week and, at the same merchant for future transactions, around 66 percent of the time. In comparison, new PayPal customers used the service on multiple days during the same time period just 20 percent of the time.