Journey begins for eWallet in Southeast Asia

Journey begins for eWallet in Southeast Asia

Jun 23, 2016 - Maneerut Anulomsombut, CEO of Garena Online (Thailand) serves as a keynote speaker from AirPay discussing about a FinTech sector entitled, “The challenge and what have been the adoption's key drivers of eWallet in Southeast Asia?” at ‘Techsauce Summit 2016’.

She stated that FinTech is not ready to explode in SEA since infrastructure is still severely lacking. However, to reach critical mass, lowering banking fees and offering offline spots for people to convert cash to e-money are required as well as ready banking infrastructure, she advised. 

According to Maneerut, regulation and laws not only play an important role to make or break FinTech but also readiness of the market.  Importantly, stakeholders should focus on educating users on why and how eWallet matters can make a big difference on their daily routines.

In China there are over 200 companies compete in FinTech, Alipay and Tenpay still hold 90% of the market. She predicted that for ASEAN it is very likely to be multiple winners coming out of the competitors, similar to the telcos market. Each eWallet provider would have their own core strengths, and thus a loyal portion of the market. 

The question raised was to know if “there is a chance for a homegrown startup.” In spite of an intensifying competition in e-payment services, there is a space for local players to become a leading provider their locations. “ASEAN countries still have a lot of structural advantages”, added Maneerut.

As for Garena, we not only integrate AirPay to provide mobile payment service but also partner with CyberSource to enhance payment security and manage an entire life cycle of payment fraud.