Croatians want more innovation and digital services

• July 17, 2024
• admin

Zagreb, 17 January 2024 – In the MasterIndex online survey, conducted for Mastercard at the end of last year by the market research agency Improve, on a sample of 1,018 banking customers in Croatia aged 18-55, one of the most important findings says that citizens would like to see more innovation and digital services in the field of health (51% of respondents) and public administration (32%), then in public transport, education and justice.

Interestingly, fewer respondents highlight these needs compared to a year ago when, for example, 70% of respondents asked for digital services in healthcare and 48% in public administration. The need to digitalise public transport (33%), education (27%), trade (24%) and telecommunications (15%) is more emphasised by young people aged 18-29. The average satisfaction score with the expansion of digital services and tools in the country rose slightly to 3.4, but did not reach the 2020 level during the lockdown when it was 3.5.

Multiple service types, multi-device

Other MasterIndex findings say that more than 80% of citizens want to pay by mobile phone, 97% of citizens want merchants to offer different payment methods, primarily cards, but also cash, mobile applications, digital wallets and cryptocurrencies. At the same time, for 87% of respondents, it is important that brands also offer their products online.

In terms of devices, most citizens actively use devices such as smartphones, laptops, smart TVs and tablets on a daily basis. The average time spent on these devices varies – 4.1 hours on smartphones, 3.7 hours on laptops or desktops, 2 hours in front of smart TVs and 27 minutes a day on tablets. Women use mobile phones more often (4.5 hours) and young people up to 29 years (5.2 hours), and compared to last year, computers and tablets are more often used.

Better infrastructure

“Our country has distinguished itself as a leader in digital payments according to the Mastercard Digital Payments Index for 2021 and 2022,” said Gea Kariž, Director of Mastercard in Croatia. “With significant progress in the areas of infrastructure, knowledge and use of digital payments, we have seen a strong increase in online card transactions, both in number (30%) and value (48%) over the past three years. At the same time, the use of cash shall be reduced.’

Finally, the survey also showed that satisfaction with digitalisation is growing, with almost half of respondents (49%) expressing satisfaction with the spread of digital services and tools in Croatia.

Nevertheless, 16% of respondents express dissatisfaction – with dissatisfaction decreasing by 4 percentage points compared to the previous year.

More details: https://www.mastercard.hr/en-hr.html