The research team could not find information on how widely used Google Pay is in Italy, the number of Google Pay users, the number of Google Pay payments by volume, the number of Google Pay payments by value (EUR), and the number of merchants accepting Google Pay in the country. We have, however, provided some useful insights below.
USEFUL FINDINGS
- Google Pay went live in Italy in September 2018.
- By December 2018, Italians could add their N26 cards to Google Pay.
- Some banks that support Google Pay and whose credit and debit cards can be added to Google Pay include; Banca Mediolanum, Boon, Hype, Nexi, N26, Revolut, and Widiba.
- According to a recent survey, 74% of all Italian consumers use their smartphone for mobile banking.
- According to market forecasts, the Italian mobile payment industry is expected to hit $164,496.9 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 14.5%. The mobile wallet payment segment will increase in value at a CAGR of 13.8% during 2018-2025.
- In 2017, the cashless payment method accounted for only 14% of all payments made by Italian citizens.
- As a fuel for e-wallet transactions, Italy's ecommerce market value is forecast to hit €35.76 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 15.6% between 2016 and 2020.
- The number of e-shoppers in Italy doubled between 2011 and 2016, increasing from 9 million to 18.8 million.
- Italy is the world's biggest market for prepaid credit cards, with more than 25 million prepaid cards issued.
- In 2016, e-wallet use accounted for 23% (€4.6 billion) of payments.
- The number of e-wallet transactions in Italy during 2016 was €203.54 million, compared to €70.68 million online card transactions and €34.5million cash transactions.
- Purchases via smartphone grew by 63% in 2016, accounting for 30% of total ecommerce sales.
- Penetration of PayPal as an alternative payment method stood at 17% while prepaid cards penetration was 16%.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
We began by scouring globally reputed publications that could have data on the statistics showing how widely used Google Pay is in Italy, the number of Google Pay users, the number of Google Pay payments by volume, the number of Google Pay payments by value (EUR), and the number of merchants accepting Google Pay in the country. A report by JP Morgan Chase Bank dubbed “THE CHANGING DYNAMIC OF PAYMENTS IN EUROPE; ITALY,” discussed the situation of cashless transactions in the country and provided insights about e-wallet penetration. It also provided the e-commerce situation as it relates to mobile payments but did not provide any statistics on the requested information.
The NFC World Knowledge Center shed more light on when Google Pay went live in Italy, as well as the specific banks that have partnered with Google Pay, but did not include any statistics as pertains to how widely used Google Pay is in Italy, the number of Google Pay users, the number of Google Pay payments by volume, the number of Google Pay payments by value (EUR), and the number of merchants accepting Google Pay in the country.
We also opted to was to check for information on statistical databases that report the payment methods at regional and international levels. We looked for information on websites like Europa, Statista, among others. We hoped that one or all of these sites would have published business stats' information. While Statistica provided information about the ways through Italians use mobile payments, it did not specifically highlight any statistics that relate to Google Pay usage in the country. We also found information on payment methods in Europe and information about the entry of Google.w The strategy proved futile as these findings did not provide anything specific to Google Pay's presence in Italy.
We also searched for information in financial publications and media publications in Italy with a focus on the payment systems in the country. Our objective was to see if any news agencies had published reports about the payment systems in Italy with user statistics. We hoped that this strategy would work as media companies publish information about different industries along with statistics from own or third-party research. We looked for information on sites like Financial Mirror, Euro News, Business Wire, and Finance Yahoo News, among others. While Business Wire provided insightful forecasts regarding the Italian mobile payment industry, the required information about Google Pay was not available.
Next, we used analytical apps to find information specific to Italy and Google Pay's presence from sites such as SensorTower and Similar Web. Similar Web only provided information about Google Pay’s popularity in specific countries and number of visits to the site globally but did not provide any statistics that we could use to triangulate the number of Google Pay users, the number of payments by volume or overall, or the number of merchants using the service Italy. For instance, there is no way we could use statistics on Google Pay rank by country or top categories and apps (by percentage) as used by Google Pay, to find the number of users in Italy. We initially thought this strategy would work as sites like SensorTower provide app intelligence data and may have published information on user stats for Google Pay.
Lastly, we looked for information published by the company Google or parent company Alphabet in its annual reports, press releases, executive statements, among others. The objective of this strategy was to see if the company had released reports on the stats of the Payment System in Italy as companies often publish information in the annual reports or press releases, about performance of products and services. However, this strategy proved futile as there was no information published on such statistics for Italy. At most, we found information on overview of the Google Pay app and its benefits etc.
There are various reason why the information could not be triangulated. For example, here are no reports, articles, publications available that provide information on Google Pay user stats in Italy. One of the probable reasons for this could be that Google Pay only went live in Italy in September 2018 and its presence and impact is not yet as significant to the extent of attracting attention. Reports also show that Italians are still largely inclined towards cash transactions hence less spotlight on new trends in mobile payments.