Telecom Lead America: The electronic P2P payments
offer an $80-120 billion market opportunity, due to increased use of ad-hoc
bill payment, micro-merchant purchases, and intra-family transfers, according
to a Person-to-Person (P2P) Payments study conducted by First Annapolis
Consulting.
The study notes that market in the U.S is observing a
steady growth and three distinct business models are emerging in P2P payments
market.
All these models are being driven by integration with
banking applications, wallets and social networks.
These business models use the strengths of various
providers, such as the networks of Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo with
an estimated 70 million online consumer accounts, and PayPal with an estimated
50 million active accounts in the US.
Furthermore, competitors such as Serve, Venmo, and Dwolla
are also developing functionality to facilitate a more streamlined payment
process.
The study reveals that over half of the solutions
evaluated now facilitate new user registration entirely from a mobile device,
and 75 percent can exercise the user’s existing contacts list to populate
recipient information.
On the other hand, new competitors are integrating social
network functionality. However, the study notes that P2P still does not have a
compelling, standalone business model, and more than half of the providers
surveyed offer the product for free.
The primary research was developed during Q2 FY12 and
based on data collected during registration and transaction trials with 12
solutions.