PayPal emerged as the leading mobile payment service used in Black Friday 2015, beating Apple Pay and other similar services. Apple Pay could be going downhill because of poor user adoption, yet its debut in China could turn things around.
Among the available mobile wallet options, PayPal was the service most used for payments during the Black Friday 2015 sale. It beat the latest mobile payment platforms like Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay according to a research done by InfoScout.
However, majority of shoppers still chose to pay with credit and debit cards. It was reported that 79% of iPhone users and 74% of Android users paid using either their credit or debit cards. On the other hand, 18% of Apple users and 24% of Android customers did not use mobile service payments or plastic cards.
300,000 Americans participated in the research - consisting of users of iPhone 6 up. Android owners of the latest Google Nexus phones, LG G3 and G4, and Samsung Galaxy S5 and S6 also took part.
It was found that only 2.7% of users paid with Apple Pay during Black Friday 2015. It is said to be the lowest rate of Apple Pay usage compared to last year's rate of 4.9%. Business Insider Australia estimated the rate of decrease to be 41% from Black Friday 2014. In the Android side, there was an even lower 2.0% rate of mobile payment usage.
As such, experts say that Apple Pay might fail because of low adoption rate. PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel said, "Apple Pay may be an incremental improvement, maybe a little bit better. But when you have something that's pretty good and you go to something that's perfect, sometimes it's very hard to drive adoption because the delta is not that big."
However, Apple Pay's debut in China might turn things around. As per a report by Neurogadget, Apple Pay will be available in China, Apple's second largest market, as early as February 2016. Launching Apple Pay in the region could push more people to use the mobile wallet service.
Apple Pay is currently available in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Apple seeks to expand Apple Pay's availability, hoping to dominate the mobile payment service market.
Join the Conversation