The end of hard cash? Online paying apps on the rise in Russia

The number of Russians who use special mobile apps (provided by banks, retailers, mobile phone operators, etc.) to pay for services is 60 percent higher than the number of those who pay for similar services using websites' online versions. The figures were provided by the Mediascope research company, RBC reports (in Russian).

The survey was conducted among Russians aged between 18 to 55 living in cities with a population of over 700,000 people, who use the Internet at least once a week. At the same time, payment using special apps is typical for all categories of services. The most popular ones are payments for mobile phone services, orders from online stores, and money transfers.

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Internet banking is the most popular method of payment (83 percent of respondents use it to make a payment at least once a year), bank cards (82.8 percent) and electronic transfers. According to Mediascope, the most popular method of payment is Sberbank Online, followed by bank cards (when making a payment a user enters his bank card details) and Yandex.Dengi.

Contactless payment systems such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay are still unpopular in Russia: Only 8.6 percent of respondents use them. They are used to pay for orders from online stores and for food deliveries, as well as paying housing, utility and mobile phone bills.

In total, 91.5 percent of internet users in Russia use online payments. The increase in payments using apps can be put down to the fact that they are much more convenient, Anna Artamonova, vice-president of Mail.Ru Group, told RBC. "Very important factors that contribute to the growing popularity of mobile payments are the simple and fast interface and more convenient method of authentication: There is no need to put in a password and access can be set up using a fingerprint. In addition, a mobile payment does not have to be confirmed by a text message," she said.

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