Tim Cook said three out of four contactless payments in the US are made with its payment service, although it’s still too early for Apple Pay to contribute meaningfully to the company’s top line.

Speaking during the company’s results call, the CEO dubbed the statistic, which was provided by US financial institutions, “amazing”.

However, it should be noted that there is relatively low adoption of contactless payments in the US compared to other countries. Also, Apple’s service has been in the market longer than rivals, including Samsung Pay and Android Pay.

“Tens of millions” of users globally are using Apple Pay, said Cook, both at stores and in-app. Estimated monthly active users were up more than 450 per cent year on year in June.

In addition, there are more than 11 million locations in the countries where Apple Pay is available that accept the service. Of this total, 3 million are in the US.

With the launch of France, Switzerland, and Hong Kong this month, Apple Pay is now live in nine markets, including six of Apple’s top 10 markets.

“Adoption outside the US has been explosive,” said Cook. More than half of transaction volume now coming from non-US markets, he said.

Quizzed about Apple Pay’s role – whether it is about selling more phones or contributing to service revenue – Cook said revenue growth from the service is “astronomical” but admitted “the base is very small”.

“And so for today, Apple Pay is very much about a great feature for our customers so that they can pay in a very simple, private, and secure way,” he added.