US millennials want to bank by selfie (sort of)

A new study by Mitek and Zogby Analytics has revealed how important the phone camera is to the banking habits of 18 to 34 year olds. The survey of 1,000 US respondents said the camera is a driving force of decisions about who to shop with and how to manage financial affairs. 40 per cent want to see more mobile capture functionality for banking, 30 per cent for retail. It also revealed:

• 68 per cent of millennials would rather use mobile capture than typing top capture information on their phones.
• 28 per cent would like to enroll for services like a new credit card or gym membership by taking a picture of their driver’s licence.
• 68 per cent have used mobile check deposit
• The latter is growing fast. Last year, only 34 per cent of Millennials had deposited a check by taking a picture. The study reckons it will be 83 per cent in the next five years.

Remember, this is a US study where cheques are still in daily use. That’s not the case everywhere. The study also looks into the possibility of paying by ‘selfie’ – using fiscal recognition to authenticate identity. It references MasterCard recently announced trial of the idea.

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Tablet e-commerce loses out to smartphones for the ninth straight quarter

Smartphone transactions are chipping away at tablets: they now represent 66 per cent of mobile transactions, versus 34 per cent for tablets. This is one of the headline findings of Adyen’s quarterly Mobile Payments Index. Adyen is a payments processor that offers merchants easy access to virtually any payment method including cards, PayPal, Alipay and more.

It revealed an ongoing decline in tablet based purchases. They’re 34 per cent now, against 36 per cent in Q2 and 38.2 per cent in Q1. One can assume this is down to the general increase in smartphone screen size, the rise of 4G and the intrinsic portability of the phone v tablet.

Overall, Adyen says more than 30 per cent of global e-transactions are on mobile, with transactions in some countries touching 50 per cent. The UK is the leading market on the Adyen platform, with 46.9 per cent of online transactions taking place on mobile. Spain and the Netherlands are at 32 per cent, the US on 27 per cent, Germany on 25 per cent, and France at 23 per cent. There are also many local idiosyncrasies. Thus, iDEAL dominates in the Netherlands with 49 per cent of payments made on mobile. Open Invoice has 42 per cent of mobile in Sweden and Bancontact/Mister Cash takes 38 per cent in in Belgium.

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Almost a quarter of players drop off after one session of a mobile game

Mobile analytics firm Appsee has revealed the lamentable retention rates for mobile games in its new blog post. It says 24 per cent of players drop off after one session with a game, while only 22 per cent remain after a month. The firm cites four potential reasons: poor traffic sources, a poor on-boarding experience, expectations of gaming quality not being met, and competition in the app stores.

Of course, app usage overall is growing (76 per cent in 2014) while gaming remains the top category. But this just seems to reduce patience among users. Appsee says that because most gaming apps are free, users have fewer qualms about abandoning them and seeking out thousands of free alternatives. Against that, there’s evidence that the users who choose to stick around tend to be very engaged.

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Netflix added 3.62 million new subscribers in 3Q

The world’s operators might have mixed feelings about it, but there’s no stopping the explosive growth of Netflix.

The video streaming service has just confirmed it added 3.62 million new subs in 3Q to bring the total to 69.17 million subscribers globally.

All those consumers streaming movies on phones and tablets across 3 and 4G puts immense pressure on networks. But it’s good for attracting data subscriptions. What a quandary.

Anyway, Netflix is enjoying the spoils – even if profits are down because of growth. The company reported $1.74 billion in revenue and $74 million in profit for 3G, down from $110 million in profit in 3Q 2014.

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iOS App Store revenues are 80 per cent higher than Google Play’s

The market for ‘glass’ will rise by a third as consumers keep buying TVs, tablets and smartphones.

According to Markets and Markets’ report the display panels space was worth $114.16 billion in 2014, but will hit $156.57 billion in five years.

The market for large size (above 10 inch) display panels is the biggest at the moment, and will remain so thanks to tablets and hi-def TV. But demand for smaller panels will grow faster between now and 2020. That’s all thanks to mobiles, phablets, automotive, and smart watches.

The markets in Europe and North America are expected to grow at CAGRs of 7.31 per cent and 7.50 per cent, respectively between 2015 and 2020.

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Spend on mobile social ads up 159 per cent 

The main driver of global ad growth is now mobile social and search, says a new study by Kenshoo.

It says mobile social ad spend is set to rise by by 159 per cent year-on-year, while mobile ad search will rise 66 per cent. Overall, mobile devices currently account for 50 per cent of all paid search clicks and 68 per cent of all paid social clicks in the third quarter of 2015. Of course, this is all happening because these ads work. Kenshoo says click-through rates on social ad campaigns have risen steadily over the past five quarters and that cost-per-click is up 21 per cent YoY in social advertising despite impression levels dropping.

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Mobile anti-malware market to hit $5.7 billion by 2020

The rise of fraud and security breaches on mobile is a drag for us all, but there’s a rising market for combating it.

And that market is set to grow from $2.5 billion in 2015 to $5.7 billion by 2020, says a new market research report by MarketsandMarkets.

The report stresses that the threat is not just to consumers but also to industry verticals, such as government and defence and healthcare –  thanks to the adoption of BYOD policies among these organisations.

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India’s mobile wallet market set to reach $11.5 billion by 2022

The rise of a powerful new group of mobile wallet players is making India one of the most dynamic mobile money regions.

6Wresearch says, in FY 2014/15 alone, m-wallet transactions grew by 130 per cent. And they will reach $11.5 billion by 2022.

The reason? A combination of aggressive startups like Paytm, One MobiKwik, ItzCash, Citrus and more plus government encouragement through schemes like ‘Digital India’.

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