Fw: Online Spending with Smart Cards and E.Cash to To US$3.5bn byyear 2000

Rohit Khare (khare@www10.w3.org)
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 11:34:25 -0500


> Online Spending with Smart Cards and E.Cash to Top
> US$3.5bn by year 2000
>
> Friday 97.01.17 - New York, NY USA -
> Almost half of the US$7.3 billion expected
> to be spent on-line by the year 2000 will be spent
> using smart cards, e.cash, and e.checks according
> to a report from Jupiter Communications.
>
> While Jupiter expects credit cards to remain the
> dominant payment choice for minor transactions, the
> report points out that the emergence of a new
> micropayment market in 1998 and beyond means smart
> card and e.money technologies will gain a growing
> share of the online consumer's e.wallet for the
> market of on-line goods and services priced below
> $10.
>
> Scott Smith, Group Director of the Digital Commerce
> Group at Jupiter and principal analyst on the
> Internet Payments Report, said, "For now, to the
> extent that they buy items online, consumers are
> comfortable with using plastic. But as new kinds of
> plastic emerge, like smart cards, and new types of
> pay-per-use services are created for the Internet,
> consumer behavior will change. If it's a
> higher-priced item, like a CD or even a PC, they
> are likely to pay with a credit card, but if the
> price is low, such as for a newspaper article or
> game play, they will likely turn to now kinds of
> e.money - smart cards or electronic coins they can
> also use on the PC."
>
> The online payments market is likely to fragment,
> but today's major payment companies will from
> offering these new services as well as from their
> existing businesses, according to the report. Visa,
> MasterCard, and American Express, for example, are
> all adding smart card payment systems to their
> credit card businesses to open new revenue streams.
> The growth of 'wallets' as plug-ins to browsers,
> and the use of systems such as CyberCash, all of
> which are or will be loaded with funds from credit
> cards, will also boost the profits of the big card
> organizations.
>
> While 1997 will be spent trailing and
> experimenting with smart card technology, by 1998
> Jupiter expects smart card transactions to soar
> dramatically, as peripherals start penetrating
> households in large quantities and technological
> and marketing barriers are surmounted. By the end
> of 1998, Jupiter projects smart cards to account
> for just over 10% of all online purchasing, or
> 35,000 transactions, growing to 26% of on-line
> transactions by the end of the year 2000.
>
> Other findings in the Internet Payments Report
> include:
>
> ~ The year 1997 will be one of trials and
> experimentation for online smart card technology.
> By 1998, however, Jupiter expects smart card
> transactions to soar dramatically, as peripherals
> start penetrating households in large quantities
> and technological and marketing barriers are
> surmounted. By the end of 1998, Jupiter projects
> smart cards to account for just over 10 percent of
> all online purchasing, or 35,000 transactions,
> growing to 26 percent of online transactions by the
> end of the year 2000.
>
> ~ The general enthusiasm from vendors to facilitate
> microtransactions should make the emergence of
> e-cash (systems capable of small payments)
> successful where it hasn't been for whole-dollar
> transactions. Although this transaction mechanism
> will remain in development in 1998, Jupiter
> believes it will emerge as the leading payments
> technology for under-US$10 purchases. By year-end
> 2000, e-cash transactions will make up over 40
> percent of the whole (and 50 percent of the
> sub-US$10 market), up from six percent in 1997 and
> 20 percent in 1998.
>
> ~ The average number of transactions per online
> household is expected to climb from the current
> nine transactions per year to 120 per year by 2000,
> as more low-value goods and services are available
> online. This rapid growth in the number of
> transactions per household will be driven by higher
> numbers of small value purchases using
> micropayment-capable payment systems. Jupiter
> predicts 80 percent of all online transactions
> will fall into the sub-US$10 price band by 2000.
>
> Contact Jupiter Communications is at
> http://www.jup.com