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Worldwide Fintech: trends and players

Digital payment systems are a key segment of the Fintech industry, providing innovative solutions designed to make payments safer, faster, cheaper, and more convenient. These systems play a crucial role in promoting financial inclusion and powering industries like e-commerce…

Lorenzo Leprotti
4–6 minutes
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  • The digital payments sector is a booming industry and a cornerstone of the Fintech landscape, driving global financial innovation.
  • The market for mobile payments, digital wallets, and e-commerce is projected to reach a staggering USD 11.53 trillion by 2024.
  • Meet the key players dominating this space and learn how they’re shaping the future of how we pay and get paid.

Digital payment systems are a key segment of the Fintech industry, providing innovative solutions designed to make payments safer, faster, cheaper, and more convenient. These systems play a crucial role in promoting financial inclusion and powering industries like e-commerce, which is itself a USD 4.173 trillion market, with an expected compound annual growth rate of 9.5% from 2024 to 2029 (according to Statista Market Insights).

The digital payments market is projected to reach USD 11.53 trillion by 2024, driven by three key products: digital commerce, mobile POS payments, and digital remittances. Digital commerce refers to online transactions for goods and services made through credit cards, direct debit, or online payment providers. Mobile POS payments involve using portable devices like smartphones or tablets as point-of-sale terminals to process transactions. Lastly, digital remittances encompass cross-border payments and money transfers.

Figure 2: Digital Payments user penetration rate in 2022, source: Statista Market Insights (2023)

Geographically, China and the United States together account for almost 60% of the total transaction value for digital payments, followed by the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany (which combined account for just over 10%). Projections by Statista indicate that in the upcoming years, the Asia-Pacific region will lead the industry, closely followed by North America and Europe, driven by escalating digital payment adoption. In the near future, the total transaction value is expected to increase significantly, potentially reaching USD 16.58 trillion by 2028. Of the three sectors mentioned above, digital commerce is expected to remain dominant, sustaining stable growth of around 7% in transaction value. This growth is fueled by factors such as the increasing adoption of e-commerce, mobile transactions, and contactless payments. At the same time, products like digital wallets and mobile payment platforms provided by PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, as well as non-Fintech players like Apple Pay or blockchain ecosystems, will gain substantial traction among consumers, facilitating smooth and secure transactions.

Main Trends

According to the International Market Analysis Research and Consulting Group (IMARC), the main trends across the digital payment market include:

  • Increased internet and mobile phone usage, driving the development of payment applications and mobile wallets, particularly appealing to small businesses and younger audiences.
  • Government initiatives promoting digital payments and incorporating them into operations, while establishing supportive regulatory frameworks.
  • A general consumer preference for convenient and fast services, such as digital payments for their instant processing and wide range of functionalities.
  • The rapid expansion of e-commerce platforms, necessitating efficient and secure digital payment options.
  • Ongoing efforts toward financial inclusion, with digital payment solutions serving as the main option for reaching unbanked and underbanked populations.

Furthermore, according to research by Menon (2023), additional factors contributing to the sector’s growth include the convenience of digital payments and the increasing digitalization of businesses seeking efficient and inexpensive payment solutions.

The Main Players

To categorize the industry and identify the main competitors in the digital payments landscape, Entrust, a U.S. digital security company, distinguishes between several categories:

  • Online electronic payment systems: Used for transfers between bank accounts, such as electronic funds transfers (EFTs), eChecks, and wire transfers.
  • Mobile payment apps and mobile wallets: Apps that enable users to send and receive money directly from their phones, or wallets that store payment information for contactless purchases at stores. Key players include Alipay, PayPal, Venmo (mobile payment apps), and Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Citrus (digital wallets).
  • Digital cards: Credit, debit, or prepaid cards usually issued by financial institutions to customers’ mobile or electronic wallets. Providers of digital cards are typically the mobile wallet platforms themselves, with major players being Apple Pay and Google Pay.
  • Contactless payments: Contactless cards with near-field communication (NFC) technology, referring primarily to mobile wallets that use magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology. Leading providers in this space are Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and PayPal.
  • Cryptocurrencies: Providers of digital wallets and digital transaction services, such as Coinbase and Binance. Leading cryptocurrency networks for transactions include Stellar, EOS, and Ethereum.

Additionally, there are “payment gateways,” which transmit data between the different parties involved in the payment process. The leading global players in this field include PayPal, Amazon Pay, Skrill, Stripe, and Verifone. PayPal, with a market cap of USD 68.36 billion, operates globally and is headquartered in the U.S. Amazon Pay, also U.S.-based, allows payments on external websites using existing Amazon account information, offering a fast and secure checkout experience. Skrill is the only one in this list with European roots.

All these categories fall under the umbrella of “Paytech,” a subsection of the Fintech industry that Papaya Global defines as “any payments that involve technology, such as paying bus fare with a QR code or tapping a mobile phone on a credit card reader.” The services offered by Paytech companies range from digital wallets and buy-now-pay-later solutions to digital currencies and real-time payment rails. The largest companies under this broader categorization are Visa and Mastercard, with market caps of USD 520.33 billion and USD 395.64 billion, respectively. In China, the major players are Tencent (USD 146.06 billion) and Ant Financial (USD 78.5 billion), while Stripe (USD 50 billion) and Nubank (USD 41.5 billion) lead the European and South American markets.

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