LOUISVILLE, KY - In just two years since it launched its payment app, Starbucks "remains the unchallenged leader in mobile payments," Mobile Payments Today reports, with a mobile payment app that is "the gold standard."

Last week, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz highlighted the popularity of the company€™s mobile app and its significance to the coffee chain.

The Starbucks gift card accounts for 25% of payments made to the company, Schultz said, with more than $1 billion loaded onto the cards during the most recent quarter, a 25% lift over the same period last year. Additionally, 20% of card transactions were conducted using the company€™s mobile app.

"Over 7 million customers now use one of our mobile payment apps, translating into 2.1 million mobile payment transactions each week, with hundreds of thousands of additional Starbucks mobile app downloads each week," Schultz said.

The mobile space isn€™t just about payments for Starbucks, as it integrated its loyalty card with the payment app, adding 1.4 million members in Q1 of 2013, an 86% increase over last year€™s 778,0000 during the same quarter.

"As our Q1 results demonstrate, the momentum we€™ve built throughout 2012 carried through holiday and into Q1 in 2013," Schultz said. "But we are just getting started and only beginning to see the benefits of the convergence of our retail, CPG, and social and digital media initiatives."

Schultz said the company would continue to innovate and leverage its success in the mobile space.

"I believe that we are in the nascent stage of being able to leverage and integrate social, digital, mobile, our investment with Square and the loyalty program into a very significant and robust opportunity going forward," Schultz said.