Southeast Asia is the fastest-growing mobile wallet market globally, report says

Asia will lead the e-wallets space globally as increasing usage of the payment option in Southeast Asia is set to offset stagnant growth in China, according to a research report by Boku, a London-based fintech firm.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

In Philippines, about half of users prefer GCash over others, while GrabPay is the no. 1 mobile wallet in Malaysia and Singapore. Meanwhile, Ovo takes the top spot in the Indonesia, with 38% of users opting for the mobile wallet.

In Singapore, however, many consumers use both GrabPay and FavePay as the latter has a better rewards program, the report said.

On the other hand, more than half of the traffic for e-wallet usage in Thailand and Vietnam comes from TrueMoney and MoMo, respectively.

The report also noted that in Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand, e-wallet adoption is on track for rapid growth on the back of low debit or credit card usage.

Image credit: Boku

While rising investment coupled with competition is driving fragmentation in the Asian market, several mobile wallets including WeChat Pay, GrabPay, and Alipay have become popular in the region. Consumers also tend to use multiple wallets.

“Asia Pacific is undoubtedly one of the most promising areas for mobile wallet growth, boasting many of the most active mobile wallet markets in the world, including China and India. However, emerging markets in this region are potentially the most important opportunities for wallet growth,” the report stated.

See also: Should Singapore’s e-wallets be threatened by Google Pay?

The number of mobile wallet users in India is expected to hit 434 million by 2025, up from 200 million in 2020. Currently, five mobile wallets – Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe, Mobikwik, and Amazon Pay – hold 94% of market share in the country.

E-wallet market share in India / Image credit: Boku report