In March, we reported on the mobile traffic at the 10 larget U.S. banks. Across all ten banks, an average of 20% of users were mobile-only.
Today, comScore provided similar numbers (note 1) for major prepaid card issuers in Q1. And the mobile lift was even more dramatic. Across the six major issuers, the incremental traffic through mobile browsers (not including native apps) ranged from 23% at WalmartMoneyCard.com to 80% at Netspend. The weighted average lift across all six was 43%.
Bottom line: While we need conversion rates to gauge channel profitability, it’s clear that mobile users are a large potential market for prepaid issuers.
—————————–
Table: U.S. desktop and mobile browser traffic at six large U.S. prepaid card sites
millions of unique visitors, age 18+ (Feb 2013)
| Q1 2013 | Total | Desktop | Mobile* | Mobile Only | Mobile Incremental** |
| netSpend | 1.4 mil | 790,000 | 670,000 | 630,000 | 80% |
| WalmartMoneyCard | 1.1 mil | 930,000 | 230,000 | 210,000 | 23% |
| Rush Card | 980,000 | 710,000 | 290,000 | 270,000 | 38% |
| Green Dot | 820,000 | 560,000 | 270,000 | 260,000 | 46% |
| Account Now | 600,000 | 450,000 | 150,000 | 140,000 | 31% |
| Amex Bluebird* | 370,000 | 240,000 | 130,000 | 130,000 | 54% |
| Total*** | 5.3 mil | 3.7 mil | 1.7 mil | 1.6 mil | 43% |
Source: comScore, monthly unique visitors in Q1 2013 (methodology)
*Includes traffic only from mobile browser, except American Express BlueBird, which also includes native app
**Mobile-only divided by desktop base
***Includes some overlap of users visiting multiple prepaid issuers
——————————
Note:
1. The banking numbers in March included native app traffic. The prepaid card traffic estimates exclude any native app traffic, except for American Express Bluebird which has both native and mobile browser traffic.