Report shows which e-payment apps Singaporeans use the most

Ecommerce firm iPrice Group collaborated with mobile analytics platform App Annie to track Singapore’s vision of building a cashless society via e-payment apps. The study pictures the development of digital wallets via vital app metrics such as monthly active users (MAU) and total downloads in the past eight quarters.

As a well-connected society, Singapore’s efforts to drive the adoption of mobile e-payments across multiple platforms pushed down the ratio of cash and check usage against digital payments. Leading this initiative is the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which aims to ease access to e-payment infrastructures through the Singapore Quick Response Code – an initiative that consolidates various QR codes into a single unified interface – and many other programs.

Which e-wallet companies have benefited from these efforts? Who leads Singapore’s e-wallet sector? Here are five vital findings from our study to answer these questions.

1. Singapore-headquartered super app Grab leads the market with a sizable customer base in the region.

Singaporean consumers have consistently used GrabPay the most since Q4 2017. Data from App Annie revealed that Grab obtained the highest MAUs in the past two years.

However, unlike other e-wallets featured in our study, Grab is a super app. Nevertheless, the unicorn claimed in their social impact report that 77% of overall transactions on its platform was conducted via GrabPay. In addition, the Grab report claims that cashless usage on its app is 1.3x higher than the overall cashless usage in the Lion City.

Commenting directly on this study, Gary Wong, head of GrabPay Singapore said, “We are about providing real choices and more convenience to our consumers. To date, about three-quarters of Grab users in Singapore use GrabPay for various services, including making payment at over 10,000 merchants in stores and online. We continue to see more users adopting cashless payment on our platform month on month and are grateful for their support.”

To date, the Singapore-headquartered company not only contributed to MAS’ efforts to move toward a cashless society, but the app is also widely used in neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. Currently, Grab ranks first in Malaysia and second in Indonesia (through Ovo) in similar research conducted in the two countries.

2. Bank-based e-wallet app DBS PayLah is the second-most actively used app in the city-state.

One of Singapore’s most popular mobile wallets is DBS PayLah, which ranks as the second-most actively used e-wallet app. It’s the only bank-based application featured on this list, as it is the only semi-closed e-wallet application provided by a bank. This means that other bank-based applications were not featured on this list because they only allow users with a registered account with the associated bank to use its payment services.

As such, PayLah aligns with MAS’ vision for a more inclusive e-payment sector. With more than 3 million Singaporeans being “banked” and having full access to digital financial services, DBS plans to double its users to 3.5 million by 2023, according to its press statement.

Its high number of active users is also primarily driven by the bank’s popularity and credibility in the city-state. DBS was established by the Singapore government in 1968, and it was named as the safest bank in Asia by New York-based trade publication Global Finance in 2016.