More Belarusians trust digital currencies

More and more Belarusians connect bank cards with digital wallets and transfer money to each other. As far as the payment for merchandise and services is concerned, online advertising is clearly in the lead. It is followed by services on the forex market and by games and their premium features. The most popular payments also include payments for cellular communication services, social networking, television, web hosting services, purchases of various kinds of merchandise, software and other services.

The average payment per one digital Belarusian wallet now stands at RUB826 (Br236,000), down by 33% after a year. In 2012 the average payment was RUB1227 (Br351,000). All the transactions in the Yandex.Money system use Russian rubles.

The decrease in the average payment size has been largely influenced by computer games where various options and premium accounts cost comparatively little but payments are more frequent than payments for other commodities and services, explained Yandex.Money Deputy Commercial Director Galina Samoilenko. For instance, in 2012 users from Belarus bought dozens of times more digital distribution games and stepped up their presence in browser games and multiplayer games. At present Belarusians can pay for various options in over 250 online games using digital currencies.

The rising demand for inexpensive options in social networks is another reason for the reduction of the average payment size. In mid-2013 the Yandex.Money service had 16 million registered wallets. The service can be used to pay to 50,000 online and offline vendors.