Mike Wuerthele
During Apple's quarterly financial results call for the third fiscal quarter of 2016, CEO Tim Cook shed more light on Apple Pay's adoption and growth with purchasers and retailers.
Cook noted that Apple Pay's monthly users are up over 400 percent year over year. Out of the nine markets in which Apple Pay is live, more than half of the service's transaction volume is coming from outside the U.S.
Additionally, Cook noted that three million retailers now accept Apple Pay in the U.S. Worldwide, there are more than 11 million points of sale across all participating Apple Pay countries. Retailers are telling Apple that three out of four contactless payments in the U.S. are being made with Apple Pay, instead of competing services Android Pay or Samsung Pay.
Answering a question from Gene Munster, Cook specified Apple Pay revenues as less about profits, and more about a "great feature for our customers" with iPhones. Cook said that while growth is astronomical, the base is relatively very small, as compared to the overall Apple user base.
Apple has yet to break out concrete numbers of regular users of the service. Analysts believe that U.S. Apple Pay transactions accounted for most of an estimated $10.9 billion in transactions in 2015. Only four countries had official Apple Pay support in 2015.
After an October 2014 U.S. launch, the Apple Pay service expanded to the U.K., Canada, and Australia. In 2016, Apple Pay launched in China, Singapore, Switzerland, France, and Hong Kong.
Revenue from Apple Pay contributes to the "services" category of the company's financial report. Services came in at $6 billion, up 20 percent from the year-ago quarter. Services count for about 11 percent of Apple's overall revenue, with Cook claiming that if it was separately accounted for, would qualify for a Fortune 100 company at some point in 2017.
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29 Comments
but but but - people on the other week's AP thread said offering an in-store $5 AP credit made apple "look weak"...
I use Apple Pay when possible. It is SO much faster and easier than using chip cards and entering pin code or signing.
I really dislike the new stupid chip readers. They are so slow. Yesterday, I went to four different places, and they all took Apple Pay (a local co-op, Best Buy, the Apple Store, and Petsmart). It's still relatively new, though, because the cashiers still occasionally act amazed.
Many places, restaurants in particular, have terminals that can do ApplePay, but the cashiers either don't know how to use them, or they are behind the counter where you can't use your phone. I've had to tell many clerks to simply ring it up as a credit card transaction, and then when it's ready, I use my phone. Some are amazed that it works. Apple needs to do outreach to all to show how Apple Pay is actually beneficial, since it speeds up the checkout transaction vs a chip card. Perhaps financial incentives to get Apple Pay used?