More Than Half Of European Online Users Support Microtransactions

If you're afraid of an always-on, digital-only gaming future, the new stats from Hi-Media Payments probably won't do much to sedate those fears. It looks like more than half the individuals who game online support microtransactions.

At the top of the list is Germany, where more than 60% of the internet users also partake in microtransactions. They lead the way over in Europe where more than 52% of all the net users over there don't mind handing over real cash for digital goods.

The stats focus a lot on Germany because these guys and gals really love their interwebs. Average spending went from 7.0 Euros in 2010 to 17.2 Euroes in 2011. Over the past year Germans have also increased spending by 23% and making up to four transactions per month.

According to the research data...

Online games are purchased on varied contents. Thus, 33 percent of German Micropayment users spend their money on downloadable games, 38 percent for virtual money, 29 percent for VIP accounts, and 23 percent for additional content such as add-ons and bonus levels.

Moving back to the aggregate data...Europeans as a whole are generally affable toward micropayments and microtransactions. There is a pretty big future centered around users relying on microtransactions for digital software, with the research data pointing to mobile being a huge, emerging market for the micropayment model.

What's more is that 81% of all Europeans surveyed, across Italy, France, Germany and Britain, would recommend to relatives that they use microtransactions as a way to purchase digital goods and/or services.

The survey consisted of 4,000 participants across multiple countries. You can learn more about the data by paying a visit to the official Hi-Media website.