Suica tops cashless use for the younger generation

There is a universal law that whenever you post anything with recent market data, newer better market data appears the next day. Just after posting the latest Contactless Payment Turf Wars installment focusing on Suica eMoney, TesTee Lab released a new market survey focusing on prepaid eMoney use (Suica, WAON, nanaco, etc.) in younger people ranging from teens to twenty somethings. The sample is small, only 3,396, and does not mention if the sampling is regional or national, but it runs from 2017~2019 which makes it possible to tease out some trends.

The first graph looks at overall spending methods: cash, eMoney, plastic credit cards, etc. Cash is still king but is closely followed by FeliCa eMoney (mostly prepaid, some postpay) and plastic credit cards. Unfortunately there is no spending category information (convenience stores, restaurants, etc.).

The next category focuses on eMoney categories: Suica/Transit, nanaco, WAON, etc. The inclusion of postpay iD and QUICPay muddies the water some, but one important takeaway is that Suica/Transit use leads the other prepaid cards by a wide margin. The other important takeaway is that Apple Pay Suica/Google Pay Suica is the most used digital wallet card. The top 4 spending categories are: convenience stores 76%, transit 58%, supermarkets 33.4%, cafe/restaurants 16.9%.

The next graph illustrates an interesting trend. As eMoney acceptance grows and more people use it, the more people want to use it everywhere. And the more they use it, the less concerned they are about security.