While detailed data on remittances is quite limited, they were able to measure the relative success of the top money transfer services in each country by looking at their mobile app’s download rankings on the Apple App Store. It turns out that PayPal, relative-newcomer Revolut and TransferWise are winning in nearly every country, but there are exceptions. For example, Skrill ranked in the top 5 in 24 countries.
With a dozen other mobile apps rounding out the top 5 across all the countries, it seems competition for low-fee money transfer apps is still fierce.
Money transfer apps
- The top 5 money transfer apps in Hungary were PayPal Mobile Cash, Revolut, TransferWise, Skrill and WorldRemit
- Across 31 countries in Europe, PayPal, Revolut and TransferWise were the most popular overall with the best download ranks
- Competition remains intense, however, as the top 5 across all the countries in our study included a wide array of other services as well, including QIWI Wallet, Western Union, WorldRemit, Skrill, Yandex. Money, TransferGo, WebMoney, Neteller, Ecopayz, MoneyGram, Payoneer and Pingit
Of the 31 countries we studied from Iceland to Russia, PayPal was the most downloaded money transfer app in 22 areas including the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain—the European countries from which people send the most money abroad. Revolut was the second most downloaded money transfer app overall, and ranked 1st for downloads in seven countries: Poland, Portugal, Ireland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania. TransferWise was the third most downloaded app.