Payments for Digital Goods to Double Between 2024 and 2029

A new study by Juniper Research has found by 2029, the volume of eCommerce payments for digital goods will reach 188 billion, from 87 billion in 2024. The study identified the growth in emerging markets, such as India and Brazil, as the prime contributing factors to global growth as infrastructural investments increase users’ access to eCommerce platforms.

The research found that efforts to extend high-speed Internet to rural areas in emerging markets will accelerate the addressable user base for services such as video streaming. The revenue opportunity is significant here due to the size of the population and increasing disposable income. Additionally, purchasing digital goods will become more accessible through the growing popularity of mobile money solutions like M-Pesa, a pan-African mobile wallet facilitating digital payments through phones without requiring a bank account. “To capitalize on this revenue growth, eCommerce merchants must optimize their platforms to support local payment methods, maximizing accessibility for a growing user base,” commented research author Lorien Carter.

Juniper Research predicts that payments for digital subscription services will grow the fastest in the Indian Subcontinent over the next five years. This growth will be caused by the wider range of pricing plans being offered to users in India by popular music subscription services like Spotify, and an expansion of available languages. To develop new service differentiation points in a rapidly evolving market, vendors must aim to localize their offerings, provide flexible pricing models, and invest in machine learning that enables hyper-personalized recommendations to capture diverse audience preferences.