NFC mobile payments to hit $74B by 2015, says Juniper

Near-field communications (NFC) payments are off to a slow start here in the U.S., but Juniper Research believes that they will reach a whopping $74 billion by 2015, and in the process will help to spur on the mobile payments revolution.

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“Our report demonstrates the spectacular growth we see across all segments of the mobile commerce market,” Juniper’s David Snow, and the author of the Mobile Commerce Markets predicting the NFC explosion, said in a statement today. “Four of these segments (money transfer, physical goods, NFC and coupons) will more than triple in transaction value over the next three years, whilst digital goods, banking and tickets will still on average, double over the same period.”

The figure adds some granularity to Juniper’s past prediction of the mobile payment market totaling $670 billion by 2015. Juniper’s prediction on NFC is a sign that the technology won’t end up dominating the mobile payment market as some would hope — the mobile payments firm Isis and Google Wallet are both banking heavily on NFC.

NFC was initially the hot topic for mobile payments, but with so many other methods of payments available, including SMS, carrier billing, and QR code scanning, it’s now being approached as just one tool among many for mobilizing purchasing.

Juniper also notes that SMS will help to spur on banking, something that’s already happening in several countries throughout Africa. The report also indicates that mobile coupons area will see the highest growth during the next few years, even though it’s the smallest mobile commerce segment right now.

NFC payments image via Shutterstock

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