Banks in the country are highly protective over their turf, making the tech’s adoption slower.
Australian customers aren’t using mobile payments nearly as much as those in other parts of the APAC region, according to new research that points the finger at the country’s banks for preventing faster adoption of the tech.
This is an interesting trend when taking into consideration that Australians are heavy smartphone users.
The research was conducted by the Griffith Asia Institute, which published the results of its analysis. They showed that while Australians are among the heaviest smartphone users in the world, they are also the least advanced mobile payments adopters in the APAC region. This includes platforms widely used in the region such as UnionPay, WeChat Pay, and Alipay.
According to the researchers, the model for these digital transactions “shifts the centre of payment transactions from the banking system to commerce.” They also pointed out that the alternative platforms “transform the payment industry through disintermediation of banking and realignment of incentives between consumers, merchants and payment service providers.”
The report said only 25.1 percent of Australian Internet customers are using mobile payments regularly.
Even though digital transactions are considered to be innovative and are popular in other APAC region neighbors, only one in four of Australian Internet customers are using them on a monthly basis. Comparatively, 46.7 percent of Hong Kong residents are using this technology, 45.3 percent of those in Thailand are doing so, 42.6 percent of those in Taiwan are using it, and 37.5 percent of people in Singapore are.
This placed Australia in 12th place out of the 14 countries analyzed by the researchers. The researchers stated that this showed that smartphone transactions are unable to break through the stronghold the country’s banks are maintaining on payment infrastructure.
“Southeast Asian markets are more advanced in adopting the technology,” said the researchers in the mobile payments analysis. “whilst the ANZ markets bear more influence from the banks despite the advent of the tech giants.”
Moreover, they pointed out that smartphones have been the most commonly used transaction method to pay for goods and services since 2017 in China.