• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, January 22, 2014

Current mobile money users, hardly a majority of smartphone owners, may become a driving force for commerce overall.

A new report highlights the importance of that group, with more than a quarter (26%) of them more likely to make a purchase via mobile.

The size of that group is relatively small, at 15% of mobile users who have made some form of mobile payment to make a purchase.

These are among the findings in the Global Consumer Insights Series on Mobile Money, which is part of the ongoing global mobile study we wrote about here last year (Mobile Spending Moves to Bigger-Ticket Items).

The study suggests that mobile payments is inching along, as we wrote about yesterday (The Rise of Mobile Payments: One Person at a Time), with some markets moving faster than others.

The large-scale report analyses data from 10,000 consumers in 13 countries to identify global and regional mobile money trends. Some of the findings:

• 15% of mobile users made some form of mobile payment in 2013
• Mobile money users spend more on individual purchases
• 12% of mobile money users are more likeliy to scan barcodes
• 11% are more likely to make charitable donations
• 10% are more likely to use location-based services

There are some notable differences by region. For example, in Kenya, 92% of the mobile money account is the bank account, while globally 66% of mobile users do some form of mobile banking. Mobile is available to many consumers who don’t have access to a physical bank.

Speed also can be a factor in payment adoption, since a quarter of mobile consumers says they don’t make mobile payments because the network is too slow, according to the study.

While the mobile money users is a relatively small percentage of mobile consumers, they may be the most important group to get more people involved in mobile payments overall.

They may be considered the start.