Tuas Capital, The Hive to launch venture builder fund for SEA

Malaysian private investment group Tuas Capital Partners has signed a partnership with US-based venture studio The Hive to form a new fund, called The Hive Southeast Asia.

The venture builder fund will be domiciled in Malaysia and investing in the co-creation space dedicated to provide startup launchpads and utilising The Hive’s venture studio model.

It will be one of the funds under Dana Penjana Nasional, a Fund of Fund to be launched by the Malaysian government. Half of the the capital for the fund will be provided by Dana Penjana Nasional and the other half by private and foreign LPs brought together by The Hive and Tuas.

Dana PENJANA Nasional was formed as part of the Malaysian Short-Term Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana).

This fund will function to mobilise a programme which will match, on a 1-to-1 basis, institutional private capital investments with selected venture capitals and early-stage tech fund managers for various stages of the startup funding lifecycle.

The Hive Southeast Asia is one of the international groups that will be participating in the programme.

Malaysia’s personalised travel app Tourplus ventured into food delivery

Tourplus, a personalised travel app based in Malaysia, has launched GetFoodPlus.com, a delivery service that specialises in frozen foods.

The deliveries will be carried out by tour guides, who were displaced by the COVID-19-induced lockdown and the government’s movements control order.

Currently, GetFoodPlus offers more then 100 frozen food items with Halal certificates.

The services are available in Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley.

Malaysia’s e-commerce enabler Everpeaks targets to raise US$376K via crowdfunding platform pitchIN

Malaysia-based e-commerce solutions provider Everpeaks has announced that it plans to raise further funds, targeting US$376,000 via equity crowdfunding platform pitchIN.

Currently, the campaign is at the pre-live stage on pitchIN.

The firm plans to use the fund to strengthen its operations, especially its marketing effort.

Also Read: ScaleUp Malaysia kickstarts 3-month programme with 20 companies in first cohort

Everpeaks combines e-commerce expertise with a duty-free global distribution hub that integrates to the e-commerce platforms.

According to Digital News Asia, Everpeaks has US$234,000 in funding from an angel investor ahead of the targeted June 15, 2020 date of being live on the pitchIN platform.

Singapore’s NTUC Income launches bite-sized insurance service SNACK

NTUC Income has launched SNACK, an insurance proposition that seeks to revolutionise the way consumers engage with, purchase and obtain insurance protection in Singapore.

Typically, an insured is required to pay insurance premiums at a fixed quantum either monthly or annually, and sometimes over a fixed duration of time, in order to be covered for a specified sum assured.

With SNACK, the insured gradually builds or stacks his insurance coverage by paying micro-premiums at either US$0.30, US$0.50, or US$0.70 and accumulate micro-policies that offer a specified sum assured — based on the insured’s profile — that corresponds with the premiums paid.

The SNACK insured can also decide when and how frequent premiums are paid by linking them to his preferred lifestyle triggers, such as ordering a meal, exercising or simply by taking public transport.

Each micro-policy, which is issued when a micro-premium is paid, covers the SNACK insured for 360 days, which means that the insured stays protected by insurance coverage that has been accumulated over time even when he stops using his lifestyle triggers or if the weekly cap is reached.

Additionally, SNACK offers the customers the flexibility to build insurance coverage at their own pace by setting a weekly cap of up to a maximum of US$50 on payment triggers, if they wish to ease cash flow.

SNACK is also looking to enhance its insurance offerings by offering options that help insureds save and invest for their future.

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It’s been 87 days since the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. As the weeks have progressed, it has become abundantly clear that there is no going back to a pre-COVID-19 era.

A new normal has formed and it has shifted the way we interact, work, live, and even consume and buy products. Famous English naturalist and biologist Charles Darwin once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change.”

Adapting has been a key theme at PatSnap since the onset of COVID-19. From shifting to a new WFH model, managing the COVID situation in both our East and West offices, and adjusting to the needs of our customers during this unprecedented time, we’ve moved quickly and adapted expertly.

As a B2B SaaS business, adjusting has also meant rethinking how we sell our products and forge ahead with growing our business.

While the pandemic has been the source of a number of pain points, a silver lining has emerged. COVID-19 has allowed us to make a pivotal shift: go from being a sales-led driven company to a product-led growth company.

Also Read: Singapore’s R&D analytics company PatSnap raises US$38M led by Sequoia, Shunwei

Out with the old, in with the new

The lead up to this shift has been a few months in the making. As a global organisation with operations in Asia, Europe and North America, our exposure to COVID-19 has spanned across three continents for the last seven months.

When the pandemic first broke in China, we began to see immediate effects on our business. I knew that I had to revise our current business strategy and time was not on my side. It was apparent that the buying and working habits of our customers were changing and our current sales methods were not going to suffice.

The APAC leadership team and I made the strategic decision to make all of our products/services free for a limited time to businesses in China, in order to support and minimise the disruption to their IP and R&D initiatives.

While our decision to provide free access was based on our desire to be customer-centric, it unintentionally set us on a path to shift our culture and business to focus on product-led growth.

Product-led growth (PLG) is an end user-focused growth model that relies on the product itself as the primary driver of customer acquisition, conversion, and expansion.

Industry tech leaders such as Zoom, Slack and Dropbox are great examples of businesses that have successfully put this model into practice. Blake Bartlett, from OpenView, wrote an excellent article on product-led growth, here’s a snippet on why he thinks PLG is the future of company growth:

With our outbound sales teams feeling the impact of companies shifting to WFH models, moving to a PLG strategy empowered our sales team to revamp their approach to sales.

Also Read: How a startup founder in China tackled the COVID-19 crisis –and what you can learn from him

Opening the door for innovative sales methods that strongly positioned PatSnap’s products enabled us to generate a pipeline of leads during one of the most turbulent economic times. Our success in China laid the groundwork for us to offer a similar free access campaign in our PatSnap West regions, solidifying our commitment to PLG.

Product-led growth is the future of B2B businesses

During the most recent Microsoft quarterly earning calls, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, mentioned that “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months. From remote teamwork and learning, to sales and customer service, to critical cloud infrastructure and security —we are working alongside customers every day to help them adapt and stay open for business in a world of remote everything.”

This acceleration of digital transformation is happening, and fast. For B2B SaaS businesses, such as PatSnap, it means that we need to even further “digitise” every aspect of how we develop and distribute our products to end-users. We need to evolve ourselves from a traditional sales-led user journey to a product-led user journey.

For the past 14 years, PatSnap has predominantly operated on a sales-led business strategy. Similar to other B2B software companies, our approach required SDRs to contact prospects and introduce PatSnap’s offerings.

If a prospect showed interest, a demo of our product would be booked to illustrate the business case for PatSnap. If the demo was successful, we’d offer a short free trial period with the end goal of signing the prospect up as a customer at the end of that trial.

Don’t get me wrong, this strategy has been successful, it has served as the foundation in which our business has been able to scale and grow. But the reality is, it’s no longer the way forward and it will not be the golden ticket to our continued growth.

Customers are more strongly positioned and educated, which means the new user journey for B2B businesses needs to focus on the PLG user journey: get the user to try the product before you sell them on it.

Also Read: Singapore’s R&D analytics company PatSnap raises US$38M led by Sequoia, Shunwei

Users need to see the value of a product themselves; this is beneficial not only for sales but also for retention. PLG places this notion at the center and enables companies with strong solutions to let the products speak for themselves.

Part of a successful PLG strategy is timing. In the early days of PatSnap, we had a good product but it likely wouldn’t have withstood the rigorous user reviews and criticism of a PLG model.

Today, after years of perfecting innovation intelligence, I am extremely confident in our products and their ability to sell themselves to prospects.

I also believe allowing users to test our products from the start will enable us to be more efficient in increasing product adoption. In turn, an increase in product adoption helps lower customer cost acquisition (CAC) resulting in better retention overall.

How is PatSnap approaching PLG?

PLG strategies are not cookie-cutter. Companies will often pick and choose various elements to suit their customers and end goals. At PatSnap we’ve decided to approach PLG by implementing the following:

Offering all our products for free within a limited time frame

Our free access campaign, which first launched in Asia in February and has now been launched in Europe and North America, was started as a method to support the IP and R&D community and generate leads.

Since launch, our leads have grown 2-3x more than pre-COVID days and we’ve seen consistent traction on weekly sign-ups from prospects and customers to try our products at no costs. The below chart shows PatSnap China’s lead generation growth since launching the free access campaign earlier this year.

Providing users with a sneak peek into the product outputs while generating leads and brand awareness.

Later this month, we will be launching our new lead generation freemium website www.connectedinnovation.io. Inspired by HubSpot’s Website Grader, our website is intended to provide users with information on any company’s innovation profile. Users simply type in a company name, click generate a report and after submitting a few contact details, they will be provided with a one-page report on the company’s innovation strategy for free.

The report is intended to be high-level and provides users with a taste of the outputs that PatSnap can provide. The goal of this site is to provide an additional avenue for lead generation while expanding PatSnap’s brand awareness among a wider audience.

Note: Lead generation freemium models are not the same as a self-serve freemium model like Zoom, where users can try the product out and buy it using a credit card if they like it.

Also Read: 3 much needed mindset shifts to thrive in a post COVID-19 world

Letting users discover the “aha” moments.

Offering free access to a product is only one half of the equation. Ensuring that users can quickly and easily onboard is the other. PatSnap is often praised for having a very simple and user-friendly interface but learning to navigate the product in its entirety isn’t always intuitive for everyone.

We want to make the onboarding experience so easy and so friendly, that customers can navigate through the experience on their own, at their own pace. By incorporating automated and user-friendly sign-ups and onboarding, we can enable users to discover the “aha” moment of PatSnap on their own (ideally within the first 5-10 minutes after login).

This moment is powerful because it often leads to users becoming brand advocates who will willingly refer your product to others because they can easily articulate the value and use case from their own experience.

Just like sales funnel metrics but focused on product

Lastly, just like how Sales and Marketing teams use the sales funnel concept, product teams within PLG environments use growth funnels to track acquisition, activation, retention, and revenue.

This is known as know as the AARRR funnel. We want our product teams to not only understand the product but see how these metrics relate to the product and use them on a more regular basis to enhance the user experience.

Also Read: PatSnap raises US$3.6M funding led by Vertex Venture Holdings

While COVID-19 continues to unfold, I believe that the new digital transformation will be PLG. Relying on outbound sales and inbound marketing may not disappear but we will likely see its effectiveness decline, making way for other opportunities to connect with users and prospects.

I strongly believe that if SaaS organisations want to continue to survive in the post-COVID world, we all have to adapt, and for PatSnap that means leaning more into PLG and showing the strength of our expertise through the power of our products.

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Last year, Reuters came out with an exclusive report about the Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab’s plan to merge OVO, its e-wallet service with DANA– an Indonesia-focussed e-wallet platform run by a joint venture between Ant Financial and Emtek Group.

On Friday, Bloomberg reported that the two companies have agreed in principle to merge, as part of its effort to challenge the domination of GoPay, the digital payments service owned by rival gojek, in the Indonesian market.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the two companies have “ironed out” their differences over valuations and structure as they aim to reduce cash burn.

The signing of the deal was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic but the report said it “could happen soon” once details are finalised.

Both companies have declined to comment on the matter.

Also Read: OVO launches crowdfunding campaign for flood victims of Greater Jakarta

Winning Indonesian market

According to a recent report by Rapyd, Indonesian consumers strongly prefer e-wallets to cards and cash with 33.8 per cent choosing one of three e-wallets (OVO, Go-Pay or Dana) as their preferred way to pay.

Among these users, OVO is the number one frequently-used payment method with 69 per cent respondents claiming to have used it in the past month. It is also the country’s most preferred one with 17.8 per cent respondents choosing it.

A merger between OVO dan Dana would result in the creation of an even more powerful player in the market.

In a recent interview with e27, OVO CEO Jason Thompson mentioned “a positive shift towards digital payment adoptions” in the Indonesian market as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Previously, in July 2019, GoPay has announced a partnership with LinkAja, a digital payments service by state-owned mobile operator Telkomsel.

gojek itself has recently named Facebook and PayPal as new investors in their latest funding round. The investment included the possibility of having PayPal integrated into the gojek platform, opening up access to a network of merchants worldwide.

More on this story as it develops.

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Silicon Valley-based global analytics software firm FICO released its Consumer Digital Banking Survey showcasing that Filipinos are more comfortable opening bank accounts on their smartphones than consumers in the US and the UK.

The study showed that 26 per cent of Filipinos prefer to open a bank account on their phone, compared to 18 per cent in the US and 25 per cent in the UK.

Subhashish Bose, FICO’s lead for fraud, security, and compliance in Asia Pacific, lended his insight. “Filipino consumers are digital natives. Around 40 per cent of Filipinos have a smartphone and according to a recent study they rank in the top 10 mobile internet users globally, spending an average of 4.58 hours a day on their phones.”

The study showed that digital account opening is rapidly becoming the norm in the Philippines, with 76 per cent of consumers saying they would open some kind of financial account online. Of those that would open a financial account online, 40 per cent would consider doing so for an everyday transaction account, 38 per cent for a credit card, and 33 per cent for a personal loan.

However, Filipinos older consumers were more likely to be leading the digital push with the youngest Filipinos being the laggards with 46 per cent of those over 55 years of age said they would open a bank account online. Fourty to 45 per cent of 25 – 34, 35 – 44 and 45 – 54 year-olds said they would do the same, while just 28 per cent of 18-24-year-olds would open a bank account online.

Also Read: Digital payments startup Ayannah diving deep into Big Data

“The truth in the numbers here is far more nuanced,” explained Bose. “Younger Filipinos are adept at using smartphones and computers, however, many do not have the required identification forms to open bank accounts at a young age, don’t have a regular income, or are presented with bank account options that are not appealing. For example, many bank accounts in the Philippines require a minimum balance to avoid monthly account-keeping fees.”

“As consumers’ reliance on online services grows in response to COVID-19, we expect further shifts in adoption and indeed an acceleration and acceptance in opening bank account digitally. It is important that banks closely examine any points of friction in their application process to ensure consumers are not abandoning a process or switching to a competitor,” said Bose.

Filipinos expect account opening to be fully digital

The survey found that a large percentage of Filipinos had an expectation that they should be able to complete all aspects of account opening online or on their phone.

Out of the regular identity checks needed to open an account, 67 per cent of Filipinos thought they should be able to prove their identity by scanning documents or providing a selfie, 47 per cent expected to prove where they live without going offline, and 45 per cent said they should be able to set up a biometric such as a fingerprint scan at account opening.

If all actions required to complete an account opening cannot be accomplished in-session, only 41 per cent of respondents said they would carry out the necessary offline actions as soon as possible.

Around 33 per cent thought they would eventually complete offline actions such as taking a phone call, posting documents, or visiting a branch. A further 13 per cent said they would try a competitor while five per cent said they would give up completely.

Also Read: Fintech in the Philippines: opportunities, challenges and why global participation is critical

Overall findings demonstrated that financial institutions in the Philippines that don’t facilitate a completely digital account opening experience could lose over 40 per cent of their new business.

“There is research to show that only six to nine per cent of applicants move through the funnel and complete the process,” said Bose. “Banking executives should review the application completion for authenticated versus non-authenticated applications, as well as how many applicants with saved or abandoned applications return to complete the process.”

Outside the Philippines, FICO’s Consumer Digital Banking Survey was done in a quantitative poll of 5,000 adults (over 18) across 10 countries including Brazil, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Sweden, UK, and the USA.

More information can be accessed here.

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Singapore-based personal finance app Fincy has secured US$11 million in fresh funding from its parent company GBCI Ventures, a venture building firm.

Fincy plans to use the funding for building its presence in Singapore and accelerating its user base and infrastructure growth, first across Southeast Asia, followed by the rest of Asia.

“GBCI Ventures has invested US$11 million in Fincy because we believe that by leveraging a secure financial infrastructure built on the blockchain technology and by offering round-the-clock customer support, Fincy can provide an affordable, contactless alternative to existing financial services, especially in a post-COVID-19 world,” said Douglas Gan, CEO of GBCI Ventures.

Launched in 2019, the app aims to provide an affordable alternative to existing financial services, starting with simplifying currency exchange via a multi-currency wallet. It also enables users to build their own social networks in-app and make contactless mobile payments.

Also Read: Singapore’s GBCI Ventures launches US$100M fund for Smart City development

Fincy’s contactless approach is already being utilised in Myanmar’s Yatai City. It is the provider of financial infrastructure to the city’s growing number of residents, who can use the app to make purchases, perform transactions, receive a salary, and manage their money without the need for physical contact.

Aside from Myanmar, Fincy is also heading the contactless mobile payments in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where it is a fully licensed money app accepted at more than 700 merchants and used by over 40 companies for payroll.

In the coming weeks, Fincy will be finalising an external funding round.
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Picture Credit: Fincy

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Global VC fund Big Idea Ventures (BIV), which runs a food accelerator in Singapore, said today that Swiss plant equipment manufacturer Bühler Group has made a strategic investment in its New Protein Fund.

The fund aims to invest in and accelerate up to 100 plant- and cell-based companies worldwide.

Temasek is also an investor in New Protein Fund.

“Together, we can support the growth of the new generation of leading plant-based companies in North America, Asia and ultimately, the planet. Bühler and BIV will work together to build great companies responding to consumer demands for great-tasting food that is good for them and good for the planet,” said Andrew D. Ive, Founder of BIV.

Plant-based foods have been gaining more recognition in recent times after the success of popular companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.

The sector is predicted to reach US$14.32 billion by 2025 with growing venture capital interest in the plant-based protein market, especially during the recent outbreak of COVID-19.

The pandemic has also provided a surprise opportunity and boost to the plant-based industry as a significant number of people begin to switch from animal-based to plant-based proteins due to health and environmental reasons.

Ian Roberts CTO of Bühler recognises this problem and addresses his concern on the urgent need for collaboration with companies to bring more impactful and sustainable solutions when it comes to food supply.

“There is an urgent need for wide-scale collaboration if we are to make an impact on the climate and nutrition challenges within the next decade,” he said.

Also Read: News Roundup: Vertex Ventures invest US$5M in India-based fertility platform IVF Access

“Academics, startups, and established companies need to come together to innovate and find more sustainable ways to produce food. This is why we are partnering with Big Idea Ventures: to accelerate the journey for promising startups, to reinforce partnerships and startup ecosystems in Singapore and the US, and to do this with a clear focus on creating a more sustainable food supply for the future,”.

Bühler also has a joint innovation facility in Singapore that focuses on developing sustainable protein-based products and provides a one-stop-shop for the development and scale-up of new products for the market.

BIV has also participated recently in a community-led charity fundraising campaign to raise about 50,000 meals for those in need by offering mentoring and virtual classes to startup founders affected by the COVID crisis.

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Image Credit: Big Idea Ventures

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Singapore-based new protein startup Shiok Meats invests in Indian counterpart Evo Foods

Singaporean cell-based meat company Shiok Meats has invested an undisclosed amount of funding in Evo Foods, according to Greenqueen. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

The India-based startup was founded in 2019 by Forbes India 30 Under 30 alumni Kartik Dixit and Shraddha Bhansali.

Evo Foods uses biotechnology to harness proteins derived from lentils to create a total vegan liquid egg product that is more sustainable in comparison to conventional eggs.

The company has said that it plans to launch its first commercial product by mid-September.

“We are proud that Evo has been garnering all the right attention from mission-aligned mentors and investors,” said Bhansali.

India’s Myelin Foundry raises new funding for its deep tech AI platform

India-based deep tech startup Myelin Foundry has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Kris Gopalakrishnan’s family office Pratithi, according to a press statement.

With this round, the company will focus its efforts on penetration in the OTT market in and outside India.

Founded by ex-CTO of Tata Sons Dr Gopichand Katragadda, Myelin builds edge AI products on consumer devices with its proprietary algorithms for video, voice, and sensor data.

Also Read: News Roundup: Vertex Ventures invest US$5M in India-based fertility platform IVF Access

“We are thrilled to have Kris join us in the exciting journey of developing global first products from India. Kris has been an innovation evangelist and a startup supporter personally as well as through CII. We look forward to Kris’s guidance as we deploy solutions at the intersection of AI and complex unstructured data for edge devices,” said Dr Katragadda, founder of Myelin Foundry.

The startup had also previously secured US$1 million in September 2019 from early-stage VC Endiya Partners.

Aavishkaar Capital to raise US$150M impact fund for Southeast Asia

Indian VC Aavishkaar Capital is raising US$150 million to invest in emerging markets in Southeast Asia, according to Dealstreet Asia.

According to the report, this would mark Aavishka’s largest fund to date with the target to close next year.

Aavishkaar Venture Capital provides private equity and microfinance solutions for early stage startups and currently manages assets of up to US$1 billion.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an emergence of new lifestyles and customer behaviours, as well as a new level of customer expectations. These shifts also introduced unprecedented opportunities and challenges in customer engagement and customer experience.

VP of Customer Excellence at Tokopedia, Rudy Dalimunthe, joined us for a webinar to share how Tokopedia, as a technology company, adapted and redefined its customer engagement and customer experience during COVID-19.

He also shed light on making a successful shift and smooth execution of a new customer engagement strategy and rolling-out of fully remote customer service operations.

Key takeaways

• Customer expectation pre- and post-COVID is different. Now, we have to be more empathetic and also respond sooner.
• Earlier, there was the option of offline, but now there is a lot of panic amongst buyers if they don’t receive their package.
• Since the pandemic, Tokopedia saw a high increase in essentials, sports goods, and the likes. There was an increase in traffic of support channels up to about 40 per cent.
• Their customer support is split into categories such as physical goods, logistics, payment, etc. Each one having various channels within them to manage the inflow of customer queries
• Your CX team is more like customer ambassadors and must align with the product and tech team to make your service better
• Tokopedia also channelised social media to use customers to help other customers to reply queries via QnA
• Millennials may not tag your brand when submitting complaints, but always tag them back when it resolved. They feel motivated especially if the tweet goes positively viral.
• If using a bot, make sure it goes beyond just answering FAQ kind of questions. Use AI to make it capable of responding to queries
• CX is beyond customer service, you begin to react to customer emotion. It is about exploring more ways and relationship marketing on how to surprise your customer
• In the context of CX, saying no includes spelling it out to the customers what they don’t need and why
• We need to be sure which customers need to be followed, don’t go overboard with “the customer is king”. Not all customers are your customers. Sometimes it can also be a competitor’s ploy. So customers need to be handled tactfully
• A consolidated marketing and CX data report should be a part of the product development plan. It is a good representation of the on-ground reality
• CS/Customer Experience (CX) for small teams: Start with using a CRM system instead of doing it manually. For ticket management and record management, don’t compromise technology.
• How to reduce complaints-per-transaction value and the number of positive mentions in social media is a good metric to evaluate CX

Food for thought

• Are chatbots worth it?
• How can CX get a board seat in the company, and CEO’s budget?
• Is there any CX community in Indonesia or SEA where CX professionals can interact and share best practices?

Resources

Catch up on the workshop with the full recording below:

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Rapyd, a global fintech company, has released its 2020 Asia Pacific eCommerce and Payment Study that analysed the financial habits, payment methods, considerations and preferences of consumers in seven countries in the region.

The report, which was conducted in March and April 2020, uncovered how consumer buying expectations and behaviours are evolving in an increasingly digital world.

From 3,500 online consumers surveyed, the results showed a quick rise in new payment technologies that have emerged in recent years and gained rapid adoption and popularity by offering a convenient payment experience, adapting to the local context and providing access to digital payments for traditionally underbanked communities.

As buyers go increasingly cashless, the study hopes to help businesses gain insights into consumer buying habits and payment diversity in Asia, helping e-commerce and m-commerce businesses increase their addressable audience and include new customer segments into the Internet economy by adopting the most relevant digital payment options.

Joel Yarbrough, VP (Asia Pacific), Rapyd, said: “Since the beginning of the global pandemic, going digital is no longer optional. E-commerce is now the new baseline. All over Asia, we see stratospheric growth in digital payment methods, with local patterns and local winners in every country. With this report, Rapyd provides businesses with the local market insights on payment behaviors, brands of choice, and technologies that are critical in creating a relevant checkout experience for consumers today.”

Card-only merchants’ challenges

According to its findings, cards and card-powered mobile wallets are dominant in Japan (61 per cent) and Taiwan (51 per cent), with a dramatic uptake of e-wallets and bank transfers as preferred ways to pay.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news: Fintech platform Rapyd welcomes ex-Uber executive into its team, to oversee Indian business operation

Taken together, e-wallets and bank transfers represent the emerging wave of payments, particularly where they are enhanced by interoperable real-time payment (RTP) systems like India with UPI (64 per cent) and Thailand with PromptPay (62 per cent).

Even in a card-preferring market like Singapore, e-wallets and bank transfers including PayNow are preferred by 42 per cent of respondents, swinging all the way to 78 per cent in Indonesia.

These are the key findings for each country participating in the survey:

Singapore

• Real-time bank payments are on the rise with PayNow and FAST bank transfers leading amidst concerns about coronavirus, converging with several years of government investment.
• PayNow earned the number 2 spot among the top payment methods with 70 per cent of respondents using it in the last month.
• GrabPay is the third most popular payment method after credit cards and PayNow.

Indonesia

• OVO Wallet is the number one frequently-used payment method with 69 per cent respondents claiming to have used it in the past month and the country’s most preferred one with 17.8 per cent respondents choosing it amongst all payment brands.
• Indonesian consumers strongly prefer e-wallets to cards and cash with 33.8 per cent choosing one of three e-wallets (OVO, Go-Pay or Dana) as their preferred way to pay.
• Real-time bank transfers including both virtual accounts and older bank redirects are preferred 44 per cent of the time on the archipelago.

Malaysia

• Bank transfer by Maybank2U, owned by Maybank, the largest bank in the country, is the most popular online payment method by usage (65 per cent) and preference (21.4 per cent).
• E-wallets including Touch N Go, Boost, PayPal, and GrabPay are all of rising importance with 22 per cent respondents choosing them as their preferred payment methods.
• Cash on delivery remains relevant with 65 per cent users claiming to have done it in the past month, prior to the Movement Control Order (MCO).

Also Read: {Updated} Indonesian founder develops CE-approved rapid self-test kit priced at US$10 for COVID-19

India

• 85 per cent of Indian respondents used Paytm in the last month.
• With the growth of India’s UPI payment scheme, e-wallets (including Paytm, Google Pay, Amazon Pay) are preferred by 51.2 per cent of users and bank transfers by 11.9 per cent.
• Debit and credit cards together are preceded by 28 per cent of respondents.
• 49 per cent of respondents make online purchases daily (highest among all countries surveyed).

Japan

• Most consumers still prefer credit cards and cash over the counter.
• Amongst mobile payment methods, PayPay eWallet is rapidly gaining popularity with 41 per cent users claiming to have used it in the past month, and 9.6 per cent choosing it over all other payment methods.

Taiwan

• Credit cards continue to be the top payment method in Taiwan both in terms of usage and preference.
• Consumers appear to use multiple payment types depending on the use case, with preferences split almost equally between credit cards, pay-on-pickup at convenience stores, bank transfers, local Easycard, and eWallets.

Thailand

• The TrueMoney e-wallet is the leading payment method with 66 per cent of respondents using it regularly, and 16.8 per cent choosing it over any other payment method.
• Together, e-wallets and bank transfers make up the most popular payment methods chosen by 62.2 per cent users — a trend accelerated by the interoperable PromptPay payment scheme.
• Cash is still preferred in highly digital Thailand by 19.4 per cent of respondents.

Altogether, it’s worth noting that e-commerce and mobile-commerce in the seven countries is worth some US$355 billion, as mentioned in the study. Southeast Asia’s internet economy hit US$100 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow to US$300 billion by 2025.

Consumers in the region and current situation continue to push businesses towards digitalisation and as digital adoption accelerates, it is essential for businesses to invest in the right technologies to build a strong online presence supporting mobile and social commerce trends catering to each market.

This localisation is the key to sustaining the business in the time of the COVID-19 crisis, and for speedier recovery and further long-term growth.

Access the Rapyd Asia Pacific 2020 eCommerce and Payment study here.
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Photo by Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash

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