Visa processed over 51 million contactless payments in UK in 12 months

"Contactless payments appear to be growing in popularity with UK consumers, after Visa revealed that more than 51 million purchases were made in the last 12 months using the NFC-enabled technology.
The global payments company also said that monthly contactless spend had increased five-fold to £45.2 million in June 2013 when compared to the same period last year.
Some £338 million has been spent on contactless Visa cards since June 2012, with an average purchase value of £6.65.
Starbucks introduces contactless payments to 550 UK stores M&S completes contactless payments roll-out Boots taps into contactless payments
Visa has unveiled a string of deals with retailers in recent months, with the likes of Starbucks and Marks & Spencer opting to roll-out the technology in-store. However, there have been complaints from consumers about duplicate payments being made accidentally in stores and concerns that the banks aren't making it easy to opt-out of receiving cards with the NFC technology enabled."

Source:  ComputerWorld UK, 19th August 2013

Marks & Spencer process nearly 250,000 NFC payments a week in the UK

"Posh retailer Marks & Spencer is accepting nearly a quarter of a million contactless payments a week, with a bonk of plastic replacing the rattle of coins.
At M&S Finsbury Pavement (it's a London street, not a food-enabled paving slab) one in three payments under £20 are contactless these days, as shoppers save valuable seconds off their transaction times.
The supermarket group processes 230,000 contactless payments a week, which make up one in 20 of its transactions for £20 or under. In the food hall and at the self-service tills, that number rises to one in four transactions.
The numbers make M&S the largest UK processor of bonking payments, which is all the more remarkable considering that the contactless tills have been in place for less than a year."
Source: The Register, 9th May 2013

Mobile internet payments in China grew 91% in Q-o-Q in Q2 2013

"According to the statistical data released by iResearch, GMV of China third-party mobile payment market attained 106.41 billion Yuan in Q2 2013, up 64.7% compared with Q1. GMV of remote mobile Internet payment gained 85.24 billion Yuan, up 90.7% over Q1, which was higher than the overall mobile payment GMV in Q1.
In Q2 2013, GMV of remote mobile Internet payment experienced explosive growth, up 90.7% versus Q1. Text message payment kept around 2% QoQ growth rate. Near field communication (NFC) payment experienced about 50% growth due to efforts made by participants in the industrial chain.
iResearch analyzes that there are three factors contributing to the rapid development of mobile payment market. Firstly, rapid development of mobile e-commerce market brought mobile payment with conventional increment. Secondly, mobile payment holds unique advantages in convenience, greatly enhancing user viscosity. Personal business, represented by repayment, payment and telecom account top-up, gradually shifted from PC to mobile device. Thirdly, in the trend of rapid development of mobile Internet and gradually clear mobile payment standard, participants in the mobile payment industrial chain actively made strategies and piloted new business. Therefore, mobile payment market witnessed booming development."
Source:  iResearch, 5th August 2013
Note - I take 'mobile internet payment' to mean m-commerce, while NFC payments will be made in-store.

140 million NFC-enabled handsets were shipped in 2012

"According to a new research report by Berg Insight, global sales of handsets featuring Near Field Communication (NFC) grew 300 percent in 2012 to reach 140 million units. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48.2 percent, annual shipments are forecasted to reach 1 billion units by 2017.
Wider adoption of NFC in mobile phones began in 2011 and accelerated in 2012 when the top-ten handset vendors released nearly 100 NFC-enabled models. NFC technology enables numerous applications such as information exchange, device pairing for establishing Bluetooth or WLAN connections, access control, electronic ticketing and secure contactless payments."

Source:  Contactless Intelligence, 17th June 2013

There are 125 NFC transactions in the UK every minute

"Visa has announced that contactless payments have reached “tipping point”, with 1.5 million contactless bus fare payments made in London since December. One in four of the 26.9 million UK Visa cards now uses contactless technology and use grows by 22 per cent every quarter.
[...]
“We have seen cases of mischarging in just a dozen instances,” explains The UK Cards Association’s head of policy, Richard Koch. “There are 125 NFC transactions every minute, or about 70 million a year, meaning these cases are really few and far between.”
[...]
Some of the problem is lack of consumer awareness. Although contactless payments are on the rise, ePayments software company Compass Plus says its surveys show 40 per cent of British consumers still have no idea about the technology.
[...]
Cash payments are being displaced. The UK Cards Association says the average debit card transaction is £40, while on a contactless card it is £5.50, with many payments of much lower amounts."

Source:  Evening Standard, 3rd June 2013

Note - this article is all about card payments (& potential errors in charging), not mobile payments

Clear Channel has 10,000 NFC-enabled poster sites in the UK

"Clear Channel, the outstanding out of home media partner, has launched a nationwide campaign to raise consumer awareness of their new Mobile Platform, which launched on 10,000 Adshel and roadside panels in March.
From this morning (22nd April), consumers who tap or scan their smartphone on interactive tags next to posters featuring ADi, the robot quiz master, will have a chance to win £1000 of technology vouchers in a free-to-enter competition. Anybody who answers all three questions correctly will be able to enter a prize draw and share their success with friends on social media."

Source:  Press release from Clear Channel, 22nd April 2013

Contactless payments account for 20% of transactions at Pret A Manger in the UK

"Contactless payments at sandwich chain Pret A Manger have boomed over the past 12 months, according to the firm's director of IT, delivery and support, Andy Chalklin.
"Contactless payments in terms of our overall transactions have gone from single digits of probably between three to five per cent, to about 20 per cent in the last 12 months," Chalklin told Computing in an exclusive interview.
He said that although the firm moved into the contactless area early on, it is only recently that it has seen a huge surge in users adopting and using the technology.
[...]
He added that the sandwich chain is gaining sales from the use of contactless technology now, and is adamant that the firm will do everything in its power to ensure it is ready for the rollout of other mobile payment solutions.
"I think to be known as a place that accepts contactless cards has raised sales. What I don't want is to fall back; we need to always make sure our devices are the fastest available," he said."

Source:  Computing. 6th March 2013

Note - these are payments through NFC chips in cards, not mobile phones

Nine of the ten biggest smartphone manufacturers sell handsets with NFC chlps

"ABI Research analyst Phil Sealy comments that "2012 is the first time that ABI Research has raised forecasts for NFC-enabled handsets, up from 80 million units to 102 million for year-end 2012. Nine out of the top ten OEMs now have NFC-enabled handsets commercially available, with most housing an embedded secure element solution. We expect handset shipments to more than double next year with NFC inclusion likely to become a default technology integrated into flagship handsets.""

Source:  Marketing Vox, 21st November 2012

1 million Android NFC devices are being shipped each week

"During yesterday’s keynote, Hugo Barra, the director of Android product management, revealed that Google is now shipping 1 million NFC-enabled Android devices every week. That’s pretty significant.
For some context, the company said that 400 million Android devices have now been activated, with activations currently flying in at a rate of 1 million per day. This means that phones with NFC built in represent nearly 15 percent of all new Android devices."

Source:  TechCrunch, 28th June 2012

By August 2012 there will be 140,000 NFC payment points in the UK

"By the time of the Olympic Games there will be more than 140,000 contactless terminals around the UK. From the moment visitors land at Heathrow they will be immersed in a contactless payment experience with everything from taxis, to retail outlets, to the Olympic Park itself."
Source:  Press release from Samsung and Visa, 9th May 2012

30m NFC-enabled phones were sold in 2011

"According to a new research report by Berg Insight, global sales of handsets featuring Near Field Communication (NFC) increased ten-fold in 2011 to 30 million units. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 87.8 percent, shipments are forecasted to reach 700 million units in 2016. The global rise in smartphone adoption is also driving higher attach rates for other wireless connectivity technologies in handsets including GPS, Bluetooth and WLAN. These connectivity technologies are already a standard feature on high-end smartphones and most medium- and low-end models. Declining costs will also enable broader integration in the featurephone segment that is rapidly gaining smartphone-like functionality. The attach rate for GPS among GSM/WCDMA/LTE handsets reached 31 percent in 2011 and grew to 38 percent for all air interface standards. Shipments of WLAN-enabled handsets have more or less doubled annually in the past four years and the attach rate increased to 33 percent in 2011."

Source:  Press release from Berg Insight, 26th March 2012

Earlier - 35m NFC-enabled phones were shipped in 2011.  Alternative (& not necessarily contradictory) figures from IMS Research

35m NFC-enabled phones were shipped in 2011

"Thirty-five million Near Field Communications (NFC)-enabled phones were shipped in 2011, in what has been described as a "breakthrough year" for the mobile payments technology.
According to analyst firm IMS Research, that number could grow to nearly 80 million by the end of 2012, driven largely by the technology being built into a wider range of devices. However, the company highlighted that Apple has so far failed to tap into the mobile payments market."

Source:  PC Advisor, 16th December 2011

There are nearly 250,000 NFC-enabled tills in the US

"Google has linked up with Citigroup bank, MasterCard, the mobile carrier Sprint, till maker First Data, and 15 retailers from pharmacies to McDonald's and Macy's department stores. By the end of this year Bedier says many of the largest retailers will be on board, each with thousands of terminals installed, all equipped with so-called near field communications touch pads, which create a wireless connection between two devices close to each other.
The US already has 230,000 readers at tills, and there will be tens of thousands more by Christmas. "We are excited about the amount of usage compared to our original expectations," says Bedier. The triallists use their mobile wallets daily or weekly, for smaller purchases: fast food, prescription drugs, clothes, cosmetics and small small electronic goods."

Source:  The Guardian, 17th September 2011