VMoney CEO: Apple Pay is a cause for celebration, not fear, for Philippine payment startups

As the dust settles from the crater created by Apple’s announcement of Apple Pay, CEO Ralph Santos (pictured below) is even more bullish on Philippine fin-tech in general and his company VMoney in particular.

While Santos himself admits that VMoney has not yet reached renown in the minds of most Filipino consumers, the end-to-find financial solution is servicing some of the biggest brands in the country, including cd-r king, Gold’s Gym, Cold Stone Creamery, Team Manila, Mossimo, Samsung, and Agoda. VMoney provides such companies everything from point of sale systems and white-labeled debit cards. To individual users, the company offers everything from its online portal to wearables, which is exactly what brings Santos to comment on Apple Pay.

Santos is no stranger to bold pronouncements. Last month, he argued that Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company’s 10 percent buy-in to Rocket Internet skyrocketed his own firm’s valuation, claiming his company already has the technology that the two new partners are still trying to develop.

Is Apple Pay not suited for the Philippine market?

In the wake of Apple Pay, which many deemed as the beginning of the end for other financial tech companies, Santos is ecstatic. “This proves to me that VMoney has been going in the right direction,” he says. “Although we’re far from being a household name, I’m quite impressed that we not only had the foresight and vision to develop a similar product, but the technical talent to implement and deploy ahead of a tech giant like Apple.”

Still, Santos does not underestimate Apple’s market power, even as it treads new ground in a completely different market. “Of course Apple has an advantage due to their massive following, which always equates to a large ecosystem,” Santos says.

Santos thinks that Apple’s sure-to-be-rapid growth will pressure their competitors in the space to shape up. “Apple Pay will definitely overwhelm competitors with serious intent to become a leader in the mobile payment space in the US and force their competition to advance and evolve their offerings ASAP,” Santos says.

Yet according to Santos, what’s bad news for fin-tech companies in the United States is good news for fin-tech companies in the Philippines, which has a far less mature marketplace overall. Still, there are a few notable companies working alongside VMoney in their own respective niches.

Lenddo, for example, offers loans based on credibility established through one’s own social network, while Dragonpay is an online payments service provider that offers similar features to PayPal. In the cryptocurrency space, Satoshi Citadel Industries, Coins.ph, BuyBitcoin.ph, and mBTC are each driving the adoption of Bitcoin with their own unique solutions.

See: Lenddo CEO says building a startup isn’t easy but passion is keySantos thinks that Apple Pay will benefit established players like these, as well as the fin-tech companies that are sure to come in the future. “Apple’s new mobile payment solution will not only provide greater awareness, but also influence the Philippines to quickly adopt the next generation of fin-tech solutions,” Santos says, adding that the reason is cultural. “Filipinos gravitate to new trends and fads, no matter if its social tech or its gadgets.”

The operative phrase in Santos’ statement above is “the next generation of fin-tech solutions.” Santos thinks that Apple Pay will not necessarily pave the way for Apple, but whichever company is best suited to serve an emerging market like the Philippines. He believes VMoney has an advantage here.

“VMoney can truly service the underbanked, whereas Apple Pay can only serve the advanced market,” Santos says, citing the fact that Apple Pay users will need a credit or debit card through an existing banking subscription. “For the emerging market, this is a strenuous application process and rarely approved due to their financial capacities.”

In contrast, Santos argues that VMoney users can open an account without a minimum deposit. “Once an account is verified, the customer has instant access to our MasterCard or VISA to immediately participate in the online economy in whichever way they wish – shopping, bills payment, prepaid products, remittances, and so on,” Santos says. This is why he feels that VMoney is more appropriate than Apple Pay for the Philippines – it has a much lower barrier to entry, and one that more people can get over.

Will smartwatches win?

One of the big questions asked in the wearable tech industry is: “Which product will consumers adopt the quickest?” There are smartwatches, Google Glass-style eyewear, rings, necklaces, bracelets, and other technology yet to be developed.

Santos thinks this is the wrong question to ask. Given that wearable tech represents such a new intersection of human-machine interaction, there is no possible way to determine which kind most people will eventually gravitate toward. We simply have no benchmark for making this prediction, so any guesses are just that – guesses. Any company that places their bets on a single kind is not only jeopardizing the company’s well-being, but not really serving its own customers, who do not yet know what they really want, Santos claims.