Ovo leads in Indonesia’s digital payments war, report says

Indonesian digital payments app Ovo leads against its competitors in the country based on brand awareness and number of active users, according to a report by London-based research company Kadence International.

The research puts Ovo – which still counts Grab and Tokopedia as its stakeholders – ahead of several rival payment platforms such as Gojek’s GoPay, Sea Group’s ShopeePay, Ant Financial’s Dana, and LinkAja.

According to the report, Ovo is the most popular payment method for online food ordering and for offline transactions like payments to street food merchants and warungs (local mom and pop shops). Meanwhile, ShopeePay leads in the online shopping category due to its integration with Shopee as well as its frequent promotions and cashback deals, which was cited as the most popular reason for respondents to use the app.

Kadence International added that Ovo was preferred by “users of productive age” (those between 25 and 45 years old), regardless of gender. Meanwhile, GoPay and ShopeePay were the payment apps of choice for users between 18 and 24 years old. Most GoPay users are male, while the majority of ShopeePay users are female.

Read also: The fintech players putting Indonesia on the map

It’s worth noting that the data comes from a survey conducted several months ago, when Tokopedia still used Ovo as its default payment method. The marketplace plans to replace it with GoPay in the future after the merger with Gojek.