BLIK dominates in mobile payments: 763 million transactions, and over 10 million active users in 2021
In the last quarter of 2021, BLIK users completed 240 million transactions, and over 763 million throughout the year. At the end of the year, 10 million people were actively using the mobile payment system. The total value of transactions in the fourth quarter was PLN 32.6 billion, while the year closed with PLN 103.3 billion. BLIK is available to all mobile banking customers with 21.6 million active applications. The first 6 banks offered their clients BLIK contactless payments, and nearly 430,000 people activated this function and completed 2.8 million transactions by the end of the year.
The best quarter in the history of BLIK
In the last quarter of 2021, as many as 240 million transactions were completed, which is over 70 percent more than in the same period of 2020. The most, as much as 160.9 million, were e-commerce purchases. Online transactions account for 67 percent of all BLIK operations. According to the estimates of the Polish Payment Standard, BLIK's share in all e-commerce payments on the Polish market already exceeds 70 percent. Five percent of transactions in e-commerce (7.3 million) have already been settled by global payment operators - BLIK users are increasingly more willing to pay with it in foreign online stores.
The second most used channel among users are transfers to the BLIK phone number. Year-on-year growth in this category is as much as 155 percent. The total number of transactions amounted to 39.55 million (compared to 15.5 million a year earlier). P2P transactions already make up 16.5 percent of the entire activity of BLIK users. The possibility of immediate transfer of money from account to account, without having to enter the bank account number, is currently being offered by 13 banks.
In the last quarter of last year, transactions in traditional payment terminals were also very popular among BLIK users (which was also influenced by the availability of BLIK contactless payments by 6 banks). 29.3 million such transactions were completed – that’s nearly 150 percent more than in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Year on year, in the last quarter of 2021, the number of ATM transactions increased by almost 50 percent and amounted to 10.5 million. Withdrawals and deposits at ATMs accounted for 4.4 percent of all BLIK transactions.
In the fourth quarter, Poles made an average of 2.6 million BLIK transactions every day. The record-breaking daily number of BLIK transactions - 3.7 million was recorded on Black Friday – 26 November, 2021. The average amount of BLIK transactions in the last quarter of the year was PLN 136. The value of all transactions made with BLIK in the last three months of 2020 amounted to PLN 32.6 billion, which is over 70 percent more than in the corresponding period of 2020.
10 million active users with further growth potential
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, the number of active BLIK users amounted to 10.1 million. Active users were classified as those who made at least one transaction each month of the quarter. For the first time, this number also includes those who only made transfers to a BLIK phone number. At the end of the year, a record number of 21.6 million active mobile applications were able to use BLIK.
One third of adult Poles actively use BLIK, which is a great achievement 7 years after the system was launched. We still see great potential for growth on the Polish market. There are over 21 million banking applications registered in our system. We want most mobile banking users in Poland to be able to use BLIK conveniently. We are gaining the position of the European leader in modern mobile payments, which gives us a solid foundation for international expansion. Our ambition is for BLIK to become a European payment system involving users of European banking applications in the area of general e-commerce, contactless and P2P.
- says Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, President of the Polish Payment Standard, BLIK operator.
BLIK is driving the contactless mobile revolution
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the 6 largest banks made contactless payments with BLIK available on a mass scale. Customers of Alior Bank, ING, Millennium, mBank, PKO Bank Polski and Santander Bank Polska can already pay in this way. At the end of December 2021, the service was activated by 428,000 people. In the last quarter of the year, 2.8 million BLIK contactless payments were made.
We are very pleased with the first numbers on BLIK contactless payments, almost three million transactions after just a few weeks of operation is a really great result for a completely new, additional payment method under the BLIK brand. For comparison, in the entire first year of BLIK's operation, we recorded one million transactions. You can see that today Poles are already very used to paying by phone and quickly adopt new solutions.
– comments Monika Król, Vice President of the Polish Payment Standard.
BLIK: the most recognised payment brand
In the proprietary KANTAR methodology (MDS Meaningful, Different Salient) for measuring brand strength (Brand Equity), the so-called Brand POWER index, BLIK gained 44 percent in the fourth quarter. (an increase of 3 pp y / y), ahead of brands such as VISA (24%), Mastercard (18%), G-Pay (6%), Revolut (4%) and Apple Pay (4%)). BLIK also has 97 percent recognition among payment brands on the Polish market, as much as 75 percent of those surveyed by KANTAR spontaneously indicate BLIK as a payment brand.
Users know and appreciate BLIK primarily for its versatility and mobility. BLIK is a complete payment system. You can pay with it in terminals - including contactless, in e-commerce, it offers transfers to a phone number and the option of depositing and withdrawing at an ATM. BLIK simplifies finances not only thanks to its versatility, but also thanks to the excellent experience it offers its users.
– stresses Monika Król, Vice President of the Polish Payment Standard.
The best year in the history of BLIK
Throughout 2021, BLIK recorded 763 million transactions. In total, since the system was launched in February 2015, users have already performed 1.5 billion operations. The value of transactions throughout the year reached the level of PLN 103 billion (compared to PLN 207.5 billion since the system was launched in 2015).
2021 is a special year for us. The transactional results of only one year can be compared with what was achieved in the previous 6 years in total. BLIK is actively used by over 10 million people and it is widely available - in every bank that offers a mobile application. You can pay with BLIK anywhere – throughout e-commerce, and thanks to the launch of contactless payments also in every terminal in the world that is adapted to receive this type of payment. Moreover, transactions increased by as much as 80 percent year on year, which shows that we still have great potential for further development.
– sums up Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, President of the Polish Payment Standard, BLIK operator.
BLIK is a common standard for mobile payments. Currently, virtually every customer of domestic payment institutions offering a mobile application has the option of using BLIK in mobile banking applications. The company Polski Standard Płatności (PSP) is responsible for the development of the system. PSP is constantly developing BLIK's capabilities so that the system is as functional as possible for its users. The shareholders of PSP are: Alior Bank, Bank Millennium, Santander Bank Polska, ING Bank Śląski, mBank, PKO Bank Polski and Mastercard.
For more information, please contact:
Marek Gieorgica
Email: mg@clearcom.pl
