11.10.2016
Millennials – at forefront of digital payment revolution
Millennials is the first generation which was raised in the word of computers and Internet. Most of them have a smartphone and account in a few social media. Does it translate into their payment habits? Are they fully „digital”? Will they still want to pay cash in 5 years from now?
„Pokolenie Millennium w świecie finansów i nowych technologii na tle generacji X i Z” („Millennials in the world of finance and new technologies versus generation X and Z”) is the first report in Poland with comprehensive presentation of the financial habits of the generation that enters their adulthood in the 21st century. Full content of the report will be presented in the 2nd half of October 2016.
- The most frequent form of contact with the bank among the Poles surveyed for the purpose of the report is electronic banking used by 80% of the respondents – says Halina Karpińska, head of the sales subunit, UX and Design at Bank Millennium. – It shows what a breakthrough difference was made when the first representatives of the generation, which already in their early youth was surrounded by computers and mobile phones, entered their adulthood. As an institution that creates and supports innovation, we have conducted a more in-depth survey into this change – adds Halina Karpińska.
The analysis of the results of the survey demonstrates high awareness of the respondents as regards state-of-the-art payment technologies. Almost half of Poles aged 16-40 have heard about BLIK mobile payments (49%), and 1 out of 10 uses this type of payment (online or via fixed lines). 36% of those surveyed have heard about bitcoins, 4% uses this crypto-currency. The same number of users has smartwatch applications. The knowledge of this technology has been demonstrated by 35% of the respondents.
A broader perspective has been provided by the breakdown of the responses onto individual age groups. The oldest respondents (33-40) use new technologies less often than younger ones. They are also less aware of their existence. 7% of those aged 33-40 pay with BLIK. 44% declare they know the technology. It is 4 and 5 percentage points, respectively, less than in case of those aged 16-19. Taking into account that an additional factor impacting the results is the level of banking penetration (lower than among underage respondents), it gives us the picture of the gap that has evolved between the consumers born already in the digital times and those who familiarised with computers and mobiles only at the further stage of their life.
This dependency has been even more pronounced in the response to the question about the preferred form of new payment technology. The youngest (16-19) most often indicate BLIK (17%), smartwatch applications (12%) and fingerprint login (10%). Less than half (49%) do not prefer any of the seven technologies featured in the survey. In the 33-40 age group the most frequently chosen answers are the same (10%, 5% and 5% respectively), but what surprises is the ratio of persons who have not chosen any technology (as much as 74%). An interesting thing is a big divergence between the preferences of women and men. Women much more often did not indicate any of the modern payment technologies as their preferred one – 74% versus 56% among men.
The survey was conducted on a representative sample of 1000 Poles aged 16-40 years. Representativeness has been maintained in terms of age, sex, size of town and education.