The Global Digital Payment Revolution Is Now: APAC Leads The World
Worldpay's Global Payment Report
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Digital payments are taking over the world. Digital spending in e-commerce and at the POS grew from $1.7 trillion in 2014 to $18.7 trillion globally in 2024, a nearly eleven-fold increase.
Once again, APAC is the global leader in digital payment adoption, with digital payments leading in eight of the 14 APAC markets in the report. This shows the tremendous impact of QR payments in the region.
But the biggest shocker is China, where, for e-commerce and POS payments, digital wallets are used for 84% and 70% of payments, compared with 9% and 20% for cards. Who said you can’t live without cards?
APAC is the only region in the study where digital wallets accounted for the majority of POS and e-commerce value in 2024. Cards lead only in Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong.
That doesn’t mean cards are dead, but they are now exclusively the payment method of wealthy nations with an established user base. Interestingly, even APAC card strongholds Singapore and Hong Kong are showing a transition to digital wallets.
This revolution isn’t going to stop and watch as cards’ grip on payments loosens even in the West as low cost options prevail.
👉 In Ten Years Digital Wallets Changed Everything
🔹 Global e-commerce spend increased from $1.2 trillion in 2014 to over $6.8 trillion in 2024, marking a more than six-fold increase.
🔹Smartphone’s share of global e-commerce spend tripled over the past decade increasing from 19% in 2014 to 57% in 2024.
🔹 Digital wallets represent 53% of e-commerce and 32% of point of sale spend in 2024.
🔹 Between 2014 and 2024 digital wallet use grew ten-fold online and in-store, accounting for $3.6 trillion and $12 trillion in spend, respectively.
🔹 Buy now pay later (BNPL) saw rapid market acceptance, with online spending growing from $2.2 bn in 2014 to $342 bn in 2024.
🔹 Global A2A e-commerce spend is projected to hit $936 bn by 2030, up from $152 bn in 2014.
🔹 Emerging economies, such as Brazil, once reliant on cash, have reshaped their payment systems. With the launch of Brazil’s Pix, the value of A2A e-commerce spend in the market increased from $3.6 bn in 2020 to $35.3 bn in 2024.
🔹 67% of all U.S. consumer spending (e-commerce and point of sale) in 2024 came directly via credit, debit and pre-paid cards.
🔹 Digital wallets' share of online spending increased from 15% to 39% between 2014 and 2024 in the U.S and grew eight-fold at the point of sale, from 2% to 16%. Sixty-five percent of Americans fund their digital wallets with credit and debit cards.
🔹 Between 2014 to 2024, cash use slipped from 44% of in-store spend to 15% as the 2020 global pandemic helped accelerate the shift to contactless payment methods.
🔹 Cash use decline has reached a relative plateau in many markets and is expected to decline globally at a rate of 2% compounded annually through 2030.
🔹 Digital payments will consolidate their footprint, capturing 79% of all spend online and reaching 53% of in-store spend by 2030.
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