Users of various mobile payment apps in Russia in 2020, with forecasts to 2025
Russia's largest bank Sberbank rolled out to owners of Mir - a domestic credit card brand rolled out in 2015 and heavily promoted within the country - and is meant to activate contactless payments on smartphones. How this will impact the user count of its competitors is not yet known. Additionally, the Central Bank of Russia investigates the three wallets for any anonymous payments. Qiwi, for example, received an 11 million ruble fine in December 2020 for several violations, including deficient record-keeping.
The user count of local wallets WebMoney, YooMoney and QiWi are all forecast to grow by over 300 percent between 2020 and 2025. All three mentioned wallets have been around for roughly 20 years in Russia, transitioning from payment services originally found on desktop PCs to mobile applications. Note, though, that this forecast was made before the rollout of a new mobile payment service in Russia in June 2021: SberPay. This service from