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Jaclyn Tiu · · 5 min readE-wallets are starting to take off in the Philippines. Here are the key players
Photo credit: Grab
The Philippines lags behind its Southeast Asian peers in e-payments. Vietnam and Thailand are supposedly doing better at creating cashless economies, and richer nations like Singapore aren’t far behind.
In the archipelago, cash remains king, with over half of Filipinos saying it’s their preferred mode of payment. Paper notes still account for a stunning 99% of transactions. This can be attributed to a lack of awareness about e-payment methods and a skittishness regarding security.
Yet the Philippines has 52.8 million unbanked people out of more than a hundred million population and a mobile penetration rate of almost 50%, making it a good market for e-payments services.
Gunning for that huge opportunity are a number of e-wallet players, and the top ones are:
| Rank in App Store (Finance category) | Rank in Google Play Store (Finance category) | |
| GCash | 1 | 1 |
| Coins.ph | 4 | 8 |
| PayMaya | 5 | 11 |
Source: App Annie, as of June 2019
Here are their rankings in terms of monthly active users:
| Rank | App |
| 1 | GCash |
| 2 | PayMaya |
GCash
PayMaya
Coins.ph
GrabPay
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GrabPay is battling with homegrown players that are, in turn, backed by China’s tech giants.
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