A new study from Juniper Research found that the total value of mobile payments for digital and physical goods, money transfers and Near Field Communications (NFC) is $249 billion this year and will leap to $670 billion in 2015, representing the gross merchandise value of all purchases or the value of money being transferred.

According to Juniper senior analyst, David Snow, the growth will be driven by the rapid adoption of mobile ticketing, NFC contactless payments, physical goods purchases and money transfers as people in both developed and developing countries use their devices for everyday transactions.

Snow says some 20 countries are expected to launch NFC services in the next 18 months, resulting in transactions approaching $50 billion worldwide by 2014, and that the need for financial access in developing countries is such that active mobile money users will double by 2013 and drive transaction values accordingly.

Juniper say that its new Mobile Payments Strategies report revealed that all segments will exhibit 2x to 3x growth over the next five years.

Snow says that analysis shows that emerging segments such as physical goods payments, NFC and money transfers will fuel market growth by a factor of 2.7 times by 2015, with digital goods the largest segment and, although forecast to more than double, 'it is not growing as quickly as some of the newer segments.'

Other key messages from the report include:

'¢    The top three regions for mobile payments (Far East & China, W. Europe and N. America) will represent 75% of the global mobile payment gross transaction value by 2015

'¢    Digital goods payments will account for nearly 40% of the market in 2015