mCommerce adoption will be driven by Women and Mature Users: BuzzCity Study

BuzzCity's latest quarterly report, released today, showcases the trends and forces in the mobile advertising industry. BuzzCity has seen a tremendous growth in the mobile ads served with a year-on-year growth of 139%. More than 126 billion ads were served in 2011, compared with 52 billion in 2010.

This time, last year,just three countries (India, USA & Indonesia) were serving in excess of a billion ads a quarter. However, by the end of 2011 another seven countries had broken into the Billion Club which includes UK, South Africa, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Canada and Thailand.

Although the signs are very encouraging, it's imperative that retailers provide reassurance on security, simplicity and the services availableso that m-commerce continues toflourish. Globally,users remain reluctant to engage in remote transactions, with 39% preferring to pay in person, and 21% preferring to charge purchases to their phones.The biggest barrier to m-commerce remains the lack of awareness of the tools and services available (35%), and concerns regarding security (27%).

"There are three missing elements, crucial to widespread adoption of mobile commerce," said Dr KF Lai, CEO of BuzzCity. "They are communication, education and security. Users are not currently aware of the services out there. When they do come across such services, these simple processes are presented in a very confusing way. Banks and retailers will need to provide their customers with clear and unambiguous assurances about security."

India continues to dominate BuzzCity's charts throughout 2011, serving over 32 billion ads in the course of the year, to over 93 million unique users per month.

Dr KF Lai remarked: "The mobile industry has not only grown but matured, we are pleased to see yet more countries joining the Billion Club across our network and I have no doubt more will be joining in the near future. With more consumers gaining trust in mobile and brands taking advantage of spending power maturity the entire mobile ecosystem will benefit in coming months, ultimately paving the way for further demand for mobile and lifestyle content as well as mobile commerce offerings.2012 looks set to be an exciting year," he said.