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Sberbank Online was by far the most frequently used online payment service in Russia as per 83 percent of respondents using it for online payments in 2020. Over half of participants revealed that they used Yandex Money to pay via the internet, while QIWI listed third after gaining substantial users volume compared to the previous year.

Digital payments market overview

Digitalization of the Russian economy has led to gradual growth in the usage of digital payments in the country. Accordingly, the total transaction value of digital payments was projected to reach over 45 billion U.S. dollars by 2024 while the number of digital payment and mobile POS payment users was forecasted to amount to over 70, and 26 million users, respectively. E-wallets and online payments gained popularity over the last few years since most Russians aged between 25 and 34 years preferred to pay for their purchases online.

Impact of COVID-19 on digital payments in Russia

With the outbreak of COVID-19 at the beginning of 2020, the online services market has experienced outstanding development in Russia. The volume of online transactions grew accordingly, amounting to roughly 556 trillion Russian rubles year-end 2020. Nearly one-third of Russian businesses had to implement new payment methods during this period, as the customer usage rate of online payments rose with the abundance of online shopping countrywide. The total revenue of the online banking sector in the country reached its historical maximum by exceeding 1.7 trillion Russian rubles in that year.