**The Rise of Digital Payments and its Impact on Alphabet Inc.**
The global digital payment market is booming, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.1% between 2024 and 2030, according to Grand View Research’s report. In terms of solution insights, payment processing led the market with 26.18% of worldwide revenue in 2023. North America dominated the market, accounting for 33.9% of total revenue in 2023. As per Marqueta’s 2024 State of Payments Report, 46% of survey respondents in the USA reported using some type of contactless payment during the last seven days. This is in contrast with 80% in the United Kingdom and 69% in Australia. Emerging technologies such as cryptocurrencies and the metaverse aim to drive payment innovation and borderless payment choices for customers. According to McKinskey‘s survey, in 2024, around 90% of consumers in both the US and Europe said they made at least one digital payment in the past year. The survey defines digital payments as transactions completed online—through websites or apps—or in physical stores using dedicated apps like digital wallets. In-app and in-store payments contributed to this expansion, with digital wallet usage for in-store transactions rising from 19% in 2019 to 28% in 2024. This expansion reveals a $10 trillion annual market for both regions. Notably, 20% of digital wallet users in the country occasionally leave home without their traditional wallets, underlining the trend toward digital-first transactions. There is also a difference in customer preferences between the US and Europe. European users prefer to choose local solutions like iDEAL in the Netherlands or Swish in Sweden, whereas US consumers prefer retailer apps. In America, younger consumers are especially attracted to “Buy Now, Pay Later” marketplaces, spending 1.5 to 2 times more than those who start on merchant websites. Rewards and offers are increasingly influencing payment decisions, with 25% of U.S. consumers citing rewards as a significant factor. Looking forward, Deloitte’s 2025 payment industry insights outlook revealed that consumers are turning to digital payments, with check transactions dropping as large stores adopt a “check zero” strategy to reduce costs and fraud concerns. Global e-commerce sales are expected to reach $6.3 trillion by 2024, fueling the growing use of credit cards, debit cards, and peer-to-peer payments. P2P app usage has gone up by 12% since 2021, but cash and check P2P payments have dropped. Digital payments are becoming more popular in B2B due to cost savings and technological developments, but checks continue to play an important role. Our Methodology
For this article, we first screened for companies that have operations in digital payments. Then, we identified stocks with positive analyst coverage and upside potential. Finally, from that group, we selected the 11 stocks that had the highest upside potential as of April 9, 2025. We have only included stocks in our list with an upside potential of 35% or higher. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the upside potential. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has converted itself into a true technology behemoth, generating tens of billions of dollars in free cash flow annually with solutions ranging from advertising to cloud computing and self-driving cars. Its overall strength is that it continues to lead in several sectors, including search, artificial intelligence, video, and cloud computing, despite the fact that its main search division has been the focus of antitrust concerns. The firm offers the Google Wallet program for Android, which allows users to make payments, which includes it on our list of the Best Digital Money Stocks. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Google and the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) recently partnered to launch Google Pay in Saudi Arabia through “mada,” the country’s payment system. The service is anticipated to launch in 2025. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announced a record annual revenue of $350 billion in 2024, representing a 14% YoY growth (15% in constant currency). Google Cloud’s revenue rose 30% year on year to $12 billion in Q4, led by demand for GCP, AI infrastructure, and generative AI products. The company made substantial AI and infrastructure developments, such as the release of Gemini 2.0, improvements to AI models, and the growth of cloud regions and data centers. Google Services revenue hit $84 billion in Q4 of 2024, up 10% year on year, while YouTube advertising revenue surged 14% to $10.5 billion. The business also displayed strong financial health, generating $24.8 billion in free cash flow in the fourth quarter and $72.8 billion for the full year. Overall, GOOGL ranks 8th among the 11 Best Digital Payments Stocks to Buy According to Analysts. While we acknowledge the potential of digital payment companies, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOGL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
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