Loup Ventures: there are over 383 million Apple Pay users globally

According to new research from Loup Ventures — based on survey work as well as the growth in transactions, countries, locations, and banks — 43% of global iPhone users have enabled Apple Pay. 

This is up from 36% in September 2018 and 20% in December 2017. That implies there are currently 383 million Apple Pay users, up 21% sequentially and 135% year-over-year.

“We believe this growth is fueled in part by the launch of peer to peer payments in January 2018,” says Loup Ventures, a a research-driven venture capital firm based in Minneapolis and New York investing in frontier technology. “We also estimate, based on the number of active countries and number of use cases within those markets, that 12% of Apple Pay users are in the U.S., and 88% of users are international. For reference, we believe 21% of active iPhones are in the U.S.”

While just under half (43%) of global iPhone owners use Apple Pay, that number is expected to continue to grow as more retailers, universities, municipalities, and public transportation systems enable contactless payments and people begin to think of their phone as their wallet. Loup Ventures says that, while Apple Pay likely won’t have a measurable impact on Services revenue growth, the model, enabled by Apple’s treatment of user privacy, lays the groundwork for handling other sensitive data and bringing ease of use to areas like healthcare.