Feedback: Bizum continues to make its mark on m-payment in Spain

The Spanish mobile payment service Bizum has just unveiled its results and uses. Spanish banks can pride themselves on having demonstrated that the success of an interoperable m-payment solution by credit transfer is possible. Indeed, Bizum continues to see its use grow and is now the second preferred payment method for e-commerce among Spaniards.

FACTS

• Bizum has just reached 20 million users and has exceeded 1,000 million transactions since its launch in 2016 (990 million correspond to payments between individuals and 10 million to payments in commerce).

• In terms of volume, this figure represents more than €50 billion spent via Bizum in online purchases or between friends (the majority of which are P2P payments, with an average of €51 per transaction).

• Since the end of 2020, Bizum users have been able to make payments and cash-ins between individuals using QR codes, which can be found in the 11,000 state lottery outlets. 200,000 face-to-face transactions have been carried out with Bizum, for a value of 22.1 million euros.

• In addition, Bizum enabled more than €33.3 million in aid to be paid out to the 6,000 NGOs listed. The donation system was set up by Bizum at the end of 2017.

• 31,000 companies now accept Bizum as a payment method.

CHALLENGES

• Bizum is gaining ground on the card. Monei, a payment processing and invoicing tool for e-commerce players, has analysed more than 200,000 online transactions carried out during the first quarter of 2022 to highlight the evolution of payments in Spain.

• Several key findings emerged:

  • the continued decline in online card payments, established at 76.1% market share (2 points less than in the first quarter of 2021), although it remains the preferred payment method for Spaniards

  • the rise of Bizum, with a 15% market share, which is now the second preferred payment method for Spaniards, although it accounted for only 4.6% of transactions in the first quarter of 2021

  • the continued dominance of PayPal, with a 7.8% share of transactions,

  • a stable market share of 5% for wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Click to Pay.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• The European Payment Initiative (EPI) project has recently seen its scope reduced. One of the reasons given for this was the defection of many banks (particularly Spanish), which had been involved in the project from the start.

• The reason for this defection? Its own ambitions having exceeded the need for harmonisation of payments and European sovereignty. For beyond EPI, Spanish banks are defending pan-European ambitions for their Bizum solution.

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