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Apple Pay surpasses Starbucks as top mobile payment app in US

October 24, 2019

Apple Pay has overtaken the Starbucks mobile app to become the top mobile payment app in the U.S., and marking the first time a generic mobile payment app has led Starbucks in the domestic market, according to a report by eMarketer. 

Apple Pay will have 30.3 million users in 2019, representing more than 47% of mobile payment users, while Starbucks will have 25.2 million users, representing 39.4% of mobile payment users, according to the report. 

"Apple Pay has benefited from the spread of new point-of-sale systems that work with the NFC signals that Apple Pay runs on," Yory Wurmser, principal analyst at eMarketer, said in a press release. "The same trend should help the Google Pay and Samsung Pay, but they will continue to split the Android market."

Total spending on proximity mobile payments will approach $100 billion in the U.S. this year, with the average user spending $1,545 using mobile payments, a 24% increase from a year ago. 

Cover image: iStock.