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What do bank customers think of new fintech products? How does mobile gaming compare to PC and console? Will Google Play ever catch Apple App Store revenues?

You’ll find the answers to these and many more mobile data related questions in this week’s MEF market stats round up…

Two-thirds of people use non-bank fintech products

Traditional banks admit they are not adequately prepared to manage the fintech threat, says the 2016 World Retail Banking Report.

The study, by Capgemini and Efma, found that consumers are already embracing fintech products or services: 63 per cent are now using them. What’s more, they are much more likely to refer friends and family to their fintech provider (55 per cent) than to their bank (38 per cent).

While 96 per cent of banking executives agree that the industry is evolving towards digital, only 13 per cent say they have the systems in place to support it.

The report said banks improved their customer experience performance by 2.9 points over the last year. However, this did not translate into profitable customer behaviour, such as retention, referrals and cross sales.

Only 16 per cent of customers, for example, said they are likely to purchase an additional product from their bank.

Now, nearly two-thirds of bank executives say they need to view fintechs as partners, with the majority of bank development strategies taking the form of collaboration (46 per cent) and investment (44 per cent).

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Google Play: twice as many downloads as Apple App Store; half the revenue

iPhone owners continue to spend a lot more on apps than their Android counterparts, even though there are fewer of them.

According to App Annie‘s Index Market for Q1 of 2016, downloads from Google’s Play Store are roughly double that of the Apple App Store. But the latter generates nearly twice as much revenue.

Overall Apple App Store revenue grew 2.3x times from Q1 2015 to Q1 2016, while Google Play grew 1.7x times in Q1 2016.

Elsewhere, the study reveals that China is now the world’s second biggest market for iOS apps after the US, just ahead of Japan. Chinese users spent 2.2x more year-on-year mostly on games.

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Mexican mobile market will be worth $15.8 billion by 2020

Five per cent year on year growth will make Mexico the fastest-growing mobile market in Latin America.

Pyramid Research says Mexico is already second only to Brazil in the region. Its mobile services market grossed $12.4 billion in 2015, and is on course for $15.8 billion by 2020.

The report claims that investors are rushing into the country after regulators moved to curb America Movil’s dominance. As a result, AT&T spent USD 4.4 billion to acquire local carriers and several foreign-based MVNOs, including Virgin and Lycamobile, have launched.

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Google Chrome is used by 1 billion mobile users per month

Eight years after launch, Google’s Chrome browser is a powerful presence in the browser world. Google claims it serves 50 per cent of all web traffic and 33 per cent of mobile traffic.

These is just two of a bunch of stats released by Google as the firm pushed out its 50th release of Chrome.

The firm also said around 771 billion web pages are loaded in Chrome each month, 3.6 billion pages are automatically translated, and more than 500 billion characters are filled in thanks to autofill.

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Mobile games set to generate more revenue than PC or console games

Games for smartphones and tablets will contribute 37 per cent of the $99.58 billion market this year, says analyst Newzoo.

That moves the sector slightly ahead of PC (32 per cent) and console (31 per cent). It’s a first for mobile, says the report.

And it’s quite an achievement given that most mobile games are free to download, while the alternatives cost up to $50 and sometimes more. Of course, mobile game makers have become smart at the art of in-app upgrades, virtual currency and ads.

Newzoo says the phone gaming will remain the fastest growing with a YoY growth rate of 23.7 per cent. It says the ‘Floating Screen’ (tablets & handheld consoles) remains the least important gaming screen, with revenues of $11.6 billion. Handheld revenues are expected to plummet another 24 per cent this year.

Newzoo expects to see consolidation in gaming as ’traditional’ publishers look to create multi-format operations. The report alludes to more acquisitions along the lines of Activision Blizzard’s purchase of “Candy Crush Saga” maker King.

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Contactless spend to reach nearly $100 billion by 2018

Cards, watches, wristbands and phones will all contribute to a booming appetite for contactless payments, says a new study from Juniper Research.

It estimates that overall spent will reach $95 billion annually by 2018, up from less than $35 billion last year.

Juniper expects more device makers to launch NFC-capable devices with secure elements, citing recent announcements by Xiaomi, ZTE and Lenovo.

Most of the action will be in cards and phones. Juniper believes watched-based transactions will account barely two per cent of non-card contactless payments by value in 2018.

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Use of Starbucks mobile order-ahead feature doubles in a year

There are now eight million mobile order-ahead transactions per month, Starbucks Q financials have revealed. That’s a 33 per cent spike from the most recent quarter.

The firm launched its Mobile Order & Pay program first in Portland more than a year ago to let customers avoid queues. The feature went live in the US in September, across 7,400 stores, and is also being tested in Canada and the UK.

Mobile order-ahead transactions represented four per cent of all Starbucks purchases last quarter in the US.

Coffee giant Starbucks has been described as the (developed) world’s most used mobile payment wallet. Certainly its ‘closed loop’ system, which is easy to top up and which seamlessly adds and redeems loyalty points, has millions of fans. In fact, there are 19 million mobile app users in the US alone.

Starbucks recently updated its app — which now awards “stars” for mobile order-ahead purchases — and revamped its rewards program.

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MEF