Apple Pay’s roll out around the world has been a tad slow, however given that this involves financial transactions, we reckon that there’s probably a lot of regulatory hurdles that needs to be cleared for each country, as well as review of security protocols, and also deals that need to be struck up with local retailers.
However it seems that despite the somewhat slow roll out, Apple Pay’s adoption levels are quite high where according to a report from Loup Ventures (via 9to5Mac), it has been estimated that there are around 253 million Apple Pay users in the world, which if accurate would account for 31% of the active iPhone install base. This means that a third of iPhone users use Apple Pay.
What’s interesting is also that despite launching in the US first, international Apple Pay users actually account for more at 215 million versus 38 million domestically. With Apple still in the expansion phases of Apple Pay, we expect that those numbers will keep increasing and the discrepancy to get larger as well.
That being said, not all of Apple’s expansions of Apple Pay in international markets have gone well. For example a couple of years ago over in Australia, some of the country’s major banks have tried to collectively boycott the service.