Argentina
Argentina's Underbanked Start to Accept Cashless Payments
Population
Argentina had an estimated population of 45,195,774 as of the middle of 2020, according to UN data. Based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest UN data, Argentina had a population of 45,461,026 as of February 21, 2021, with 92.8% living in urban areas, mainly Buenos Aires. The median age of the population is 31.5 years. Argentina had approximately 36.32 million active internet users as of January 2021, according to Data Reportal.
E-commerce
The relatively low levels of banking, internet, and smartphone penetration mean Argentina faces many challenges to establish an e-commerce market. The average annual revenue per paying user in Argentina amounted to $476 in 2020, according to the PPRO Report. Most cross-border e-commerce purchases by Argentinian shoppers are of products from China, Brazil, and the United States..
Payment preferences
In 2020, most Argentinian shoppers prefer to pay with cards, followed by cash, bank transfers, and other payment methods. For cashless payments, the three big players are Visa, American Express, and Mastercard.
Economy
According to IMF data, Argentina had a gross domestic product of $444.46 billion in 2019, which declined to $382.76 billion in 2020 due to the pandemic. As the economy continues to recover, Argentina's GDP is expected to expand to about $416.94 billion in 2021.
Internet & mobile phone trends
According to Statista, 13% of internet users in the country were aged 20-24 years old as of October 2016 to September 2017. According to Datareportal, there were 36.32 million internet users in January 2021, which had increased by about 1.2 million (+3.5%) from 2020, with an internet penetration rate of 80.0% in January 2021. Meanwhile, 65% of the population had smartphones in 2020.
Banking
According to the PPRO Report, only 49% of Argentinians had bank accounts in 2020, with only 24% of them being credit card holders.