Europeans wary of smartwatch e-wallets, Americans & Chinese more open ahead of Apple Watch launch
Smartwatch-based digital wallets -- like Apple's integrated Passbook and Apple Pay systems -- could face an uphill battle in Europe, survey data released on Tuesday suggests, as consumers on the Old Continent seem to eye such devices with relative suspicion, compared to more interest among American and Chinese consumers.
Just 20 percent of German consumers and 27 percent of their U.K. counterparts are interested in using a contactless payment system built into a smartwatch, the data shows, compared to 54 percent and 40 percent in China and the U.S. respectively. The numbers come from interviews with 1,000 smartphone owners each in China, Germany, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. conducted by German market research firm GfK.
Surprisingly, South Korea also lags behind in that regard, with only 27 percent of consumers showing interest.
While no reason is given for the disparity, it is possible that the existence of established tap-to-pay systems has an effect. Credit card-based contactless payments have long been popular in Europe, and South Korean consumers can take advantage of similar systems built into mobile phones and SIM cards, much like those found in neighboring Japan.
China and the U.S., meanwhile, lack large-scale contactless payment deployments. Semiautonomous Hong Kong has had the popular Octopus system --?one of the first successful and widespread uses of NFC for commerce in the world --?since the late 1990s, but similar systems have failed to gain wide adoption on the mainland.
Apple's own NFC-based payment system, Apple Pay, is expected to roll out in the U.S. as soon as this week. Europeans are likely to gain access next year, with payment consortium Visa driving adoption, while China is likely to follow after details of an agreement between Apple and China's UnionPay were revealed in September.
Interest in other uses for smartwatch-based digital wallets, like storing health or identification data, booked similar disparities.
70 percent of Chinese consumers, 50 percent of Americans and 43 percent of South Koreans surveyed said they would be interested in storing health data in such a service, for instance. Only 33 percent of U.K. residents and 25 percent of Germans shared those sentiments.
Chinese consumers once again led the way when asked if they would prefer to store identification data on smart watches, with 57 percent answering in the affirmative. The U.S. came in second with 41 percent, followed by South Korea, the U.K., and Germany at 33 percent, 28 percent, and 20 percent, respectively.
The high level of interest in the U.S. likely speaks to the potential for convenience that American consumers see in smartwatches. While China, South Korea, Germany, and the U.K. already issue "smart" national identity cards, U.S. citizens have fiercely fought back against such efforts, even for state-issued driver's licenses.
Just 20 percent of German consumers and 27 percent of their U.K. counterparts are interested in using a contactless payment system built into a smartwatch, the data shows, compared to 54 percent and 40 percent in China and the U.S. respectively. The numbers come from interviews with 1,000 smartphone owners each in China, Germany, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. conducted by German market research firm GfK.
Surprisingly, South Korea also lags behind in that regard, with only 27 percent of consumers showing interest.
While no reason is given for the disparity, it is possible that the existence of established tap-to-pay systems has an effect. Credit card-based contactless payments have long been popular in Europe, and South Korean consumers can take advantage of similar systems built into mobile phones and SIM cards, much like those found in neighboring Japan.
China and the U.S., meanwhile, lack large-scale contactless payment deployments. Semiautonomous Hong Kong has had the popular Octopus system --?one of the first successful and widespread uses of NFC for commerce in the world --?since the late 1990s, but similar systems have failed to gain wide adoption on the mainland.
Apple's own NFC-based payment system, Apple Pay, is expected to roll out in the U.S. as soon as this week. Europeans are likely to gain access next year, with payment consortium Visa driving adoption, while China is likely to follow after details of an agreement between Apple and China's UnionPay were revealed in September.
Interest in other uses for smartwatch-based digital wallets, like storing health or identification data, booked similar disparities.
70 percent of Chinese consumers, 50 percent of Americans and 43 percent of South Koreans surveyed said they would be interested in storing health data in such a service, for instance. Only 33 percent of U.K. residents and 25 percent of Germans shared those sentiments.
Chinese consumers once again led the way when asked if they would prefer to store identification data on smart watches, with 57 percent answering in the affirmative. The U.S. came in second with 41 percent, followed by South Korea, the U.K., and Germany at 33 percent, 28 percent, and 20 percent, respectively.
The high level of interest in the U.S. likely speaks to the potential for convenience that American consumers see in smartwatches. While China, South Korea, Germany, and the U.K. already issue "smart" national identity cards, U.S. citizens have fiercely fought back against such efforts, even for state-issued driver's licenses.
Comments
It is not going to be an over night things but as they see more and more people taping to pay they will want the same experience.
Visa is barely present in Germany, where MasterCard/EuroCard has ruled the roost since I've been here ('89)... and even MC/EC isn't accepted every where, including many large retailers or super markets.
Besides cash... the majority of consumer usage and acceptance by retailers are bank debit cards, which are all chip and PIN. I don't expect this to change anytime soon. We've also moved to home card readers that create a PIN or TAN when doing online banking. just that little change has taken a long time for people to accept and use.
*IF* Apple is to make any headway at all, it will be after probably at least 2-3 years of success elsewhere, with absolutely no security breaches and even then, only IF the banks think it will save THEM money. The retailers themselves will not move a muscle to install this without the bank's insisting upon it.
From what I understand, lots of Europe is in a cash economy. Paperwork is such a hassle for tax evaders..
I've seen sales tax evaders in Chicago too... so I suspect it is happening in other places in the US. Never mess with the tax guys, they have nothing else to do. Besides that, it's wrong to cheat.
Yes... but you must be very clever how and when you decide not to declare, or else the Tax Authority will send you a "tax estimate" that is payable in full, and causing you to go to tax court to prove the estimate is wrong.
I've never heard of anyone getting their money back... but I'm sure it occurs from time to time. BTW: the estimate is usually a magnitude higher than what you would have paid. Restaurants, bakeries, kiosks run across this problem a lot here in Germany if their bookkeeping looks suspect.***
*** Edited to add the qualifier, while just because you turn in your tax forms, does not mean the tax authority will automatically rubber stamp it.
From what I understand, lots of Europe is in a cash economy. Paperwork is such a hassle for tax evaders..
It depends where in Europe you're talking about.
That might be true for the Southern European poorer countries, like Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal etc.
Scandinavia leads the world in cashless transactions.
In Sweden 4 out of 5 transactions are cashless. In Italy, 3 out of 4 transactions are with cash.
This is a technology that people will have to see in action before they make the jump, it was the same thing going from Cash to Checks to CC, once people started to see other going through the check out quickly with CC others wanted the same experience. Also it does not limit your buying based on how much cash you have in your pockets at the time.
It is not going to be an over night things but as they see more and more people taping to pay they will want the same experience.
it is not a problem of seeing the technology, it is more related to already having contactless alternatives like tap and pay cards
- unlike in the US, most Europeans access revolving credit limits through their current accounts, not credit cards, and therefore pay by Debit Card (even those that do have a credit card use it as a charge card and prefer to use their bank credit limit)
- unlike the US, Europeans have had a very efficient and fraud-safe Chip & PIN for years (we never show IDs)
- unlike the US, most Europeans have had Contactless Cards for purchases up to EUR 30 for many years
So, in the US, Apple Pay allows going from magnetic stripe + signature + ID to contactless by phone; in Europe, the proposition is to go from contactless card to contactless by phone (huh?)....
The tax authorities are quite vigilant here, and the do come to your place of business (every few years) or home (less often) to check up on you. They will ask for receipts of things in your home or business and then add it up to see if you have spent more than you were making officially to be able to afford the items. I'm talking from experience, as I was audited twice within a couple of years. Funny enough, the poor agent lost money (they have incentives), because I was actually returning too much VAT on sales of my artwork overseas. I keep meticulous books and have done so for 30+ years. For me it's the only way to visualize when you have to switch course when the "bezier curve" is going the wrong way. :smokey:
We haven't had checks here in daily usage for 20+ years.
May I ask where you are in Europe? Here in Germany I haven't ran across a "contactless card" of any kind. Debit cards must be inserted into a terminal, pulled out then a PIN typed in. Sometimes they are signed in rare occurrences that the terminal or connection is problematic. Some small businesses don't have terminals.... but it is rare these days.
No duh.
So backwards and behind the times. Most Euro's still pay bills by check or cash.
I don't know of anyone using checks here
Thanks for the laughs.
No duh.
So backwards and behind the times. Most Euro's still pay bills by check or cash.
Yeah, I suppose we all have bad teeth, live in castles and sound like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.
No one uses checks (cheques). Many banks have stopped issuing check books years ago.
I've not paid for anything in cash in a shop for years and the majority of sales I have seen are through a credit or debit card.
We have a far higher rate of shops accepting wireless card payments, probably because we are further along the evolutionary scale when it comes to card payments. We had Chip & Pin first and it's only just about to land in the US so you are 11 years behind us already.
We have had contactless payment cards that use NFC since 2008 so the US is 6 years behind us there.
I seriously doubt there'll be many issues getting Europeans to swap from holding a card up to a machine and holding an iPhone up to the same machine. The issue is selling Apple products to the Europeans, not actually getting them to use the Apple products. In Europe, we pay a LOT more than you do.
America, so backwards and behind the times. Most Yanks still pay bills by cash or signing on a piece of paper. So last century.
I still remember people writing checks at the supermarket. However, I can't remember the last time I saw someone do that.
The same thing will be true of swiping cards within 5 years.
We have had contactless payment cards that use NFC since 2008 so the US is 6 years behind us there.
No. You've had the same that the US has had. And likewise, no one has ever used it, because of a lack of an organized system. That is about to start changing for good.
May I ask where you are in Europe? Here in Germany I haven't ran across a "contactless card" of any kind. Debit cards must be inserted into a terminal, pulled out then a PIN typed in. Sometimes they are signed in rare occurrences that the terminal or connection is problematic. Some small businesses don't have terminals.... but it is rare these days.
UK