Securing the Digital Landscape: The Importance of Safe Online Transactions in the Gaming Industry for Gen Z

By Daniel Villar, Acceptance Solutions Sr. Director, Visa Latin America and the Caribbean

Amid this increasingly digital ecosystem, we are now in front of a unique social emerging group: the Gen Zers - the first-ever generation of truly digital natives, which are rapidly reshaping the banking and finance world, gaining more spending power and financial maturity and becoming the new influencers of today’s digital commerce.

Gen Z – comprising people born between 1997 and 2012 – is now the world’s largest age cohort, accounting for 32% of the world’s total population¹. As this unique group of young adults continues to expand, at Visa we want to share a new report “Winning over the Gen Zers in social, gaming & payments,” through which we provide our financial institutions, merchants, and the entire commerce ecosystem with clear guidelines to better understand and meet Gen Z’s commercial needs, unlocking substantial business opportunities to effectively reach and engage with this significant demographic.

Particularly in gaming, which plays a central role in Gen Zers’ lives, understanding their behavior is key as 80% of Latin American Gen Zers currently identify themselves a gamer² and 70% say video games are their favorite entertainment format³. So, the report deeps dive into this space, providing a playbook for issuers to reach Gen Z gamers, while also expands on their cultural relevance as social activists, wellness advocates, and the driving force for today’s shift towards digital payments geared by their natural use of mobile banking apps, digital wallets, peer-to-peer payment apps and cryptocurrencies.

There is no doubt that winning over Gen Zers is crucial for future success, given their growing impact as the world’s most digital savvy generation. All participants from the payment’s ecosystem must rise to the challenge of connecting to these youngers through innovative digital banking experiences to unlock more business growth and capture the loyalty of this fastest-growing consumer group that is reshaping the future of commerce.

I invite you to explore our new report by clicking here to access it in English, Spanish or Portuguese.

 

1 Gen Z: Statistics, Data and Trends (2024) https://whatsthebigdata.com/gen-z-statis/#google_vignette

2 NewZoo Global Gamer Study 2023. https://newzoo.com/resources/trend-reports/how-different-generations-engage-with-video-games

3 En Latam, 7 de cada 10 personas de la Gen Z cree que los videojuegos son el mejor formato de entretenimiento. Adlatina, September 26, 2023. https://www.adlatina.com/digital/siete-de-cada-diezlatinoamericanos-de-la-generacion-z-consideran-que-los-videojuegos-son-el-mejor-formato-de-entretenimiento