In the past five years, the expansion of electronic payments in Asian countries has driven GDP growth by an average of 0.06 percentage points. As the two biggest competitors in China, Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent have extended their reach to Southeast Asia. With their strong payment platform, they are changing the existing pattern of the local banking industry.
The latest survey conducted by Visa on Moody's analysis shows that in the past five years, the expansion of electronic payments in Asian countries has driven GDP growth by an average of 0.06 percentage points. From 2011 to 2015, the expansion of e-payments, including credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards, brought 4.6 billion pesos (about $100 million) to the Philippine economy and created an equivalent of 3,460 jobs each year. In spite of this, the Philippines still lags behind neighboring countries. In other Southeast Asian countries, the use of electronic payments has boosted Thailand's growth of 0.19%, Vietnam's growth of 0.14%, and Singapore's growth of 0.1%. Electronic payments in these three countries have contributed significantly to GDP growth in recent years. .
DBS Bank CEO Piyush Gupta said in an interview on November 14 that Chinese Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent are changing the existing landscape of banking in Southeast Asia with their strong payment platform. He believes that Alibaba's Alipay and Tencent's WeChat two payment platforms have already brought huge impact to China's banking industry. As the biggest competitors in China, their tentacles are extending to other parts of Asia.
Ali Tencent's layout of electronic payment in Southeast Asia will change
Dense layout of Southeast Asian markets
As one of the emerging economies in Asia, Thailand's electronic payment market is increasingly mature and has great potential for development. According to a report from the Thai media quoted by the Ministry of Commerce, the Bank of Thailand’s national electronic payment data report for the first quarter of 2016 showed that the total amount of Thai transactions completed with electronic payments was approximately 3.88 trillion baht. Its electronic payments include transfers, consumption of goods and services, and payment of salaries to employees through peers or across lines.
According to the report of the Bank of Thailand mentioned above, online banking services are still one of the most popular payment methods for Thais, followed by mobile phone transfer services. Mobile banking services are increasingly recognized and loved by consumers, which is related to the ability of smartphones to provide a more convenient payment experience. In the past, ATM banking services were ranked ahead of mobile banking services.
As of the first quarter of 2016, the amount of transactions in Thailand through online banking payments and transfers totaled 2.56 trillion baht, an increase of 361.12 billion baht. Such a high transaction amount reflects from the side that consumers' acceptance of electronic payment methods is increasing.
As for mobile banking or mobile banking services, the cumulative transaction amount in the first quarter of 2016 was 358.56 billion baht, an increase of 51.39 billion baht from the previous quarter. There was a significant decline in the use of ATM banking services, and the transaction value decreased by 22.47 billion yo.
On November 1, Ma Yun, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group, and Xie Guomin, the former richest man in Thailand and Chairman of Zhengda Group, attended the global launch conference of Ant Financial. It is understood that Ant Financial signed a strategic cooperation agreement with AscendMoney, a payment company under the Thai Zhengda Group. Previously, Alibaba Group has invested US$1 billion in the ASEAN market to participate in the Singapore e-commerce company Lazada GroupSA, which is an important e-commerce platform for ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Ma Yun said at the China-ASEAN Expo in September that Alibaba will expand investment and development in the ASEAN region to help local SMEs and young people develop.
According to information provided by Zhao Zhiming, head of the media department of Alibaba Group's public relations department, to 21st Century Business Herald, as of the beginning of 2016, Alipay has accessed more than 50,000 offline stores overseas, covering overseas airports, department stores, duty-free shops, and catering. , entertainment and other places. Covering a wide range of areas in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and other regions.
Tencent is also intensively deployed in Southeast Asia. Thailand’s Kai Tai Bank said in October this year that it will cooperate with Tencent’s messaging application WeChat to provide payment services for Chinese tourists. Chinese tourists are currently one of the main players in Thailand's tourism industry. Chinese tourists visiting Thailand have grown steadily in recent years. According to data released by Tencent's recent earnings report, the number of monthly active accounts of WeChat and WeChat reached 864 million, compared with the same period last year. Increase by 30%. Noppawan Jermhansa, executive vice president of Kai Tai Bank, said that there are more than 200,000 locations in Thailand that can be paid via WeChat payment. In addition, in March of this year, Tencent also participated in Garena's $170 million Series D financing, with a valuation of $3.75 billion, and in addition to its own gaming business, it also operates the social e-commerce application Shopee and the payment service application AirPay.
The road ahead is a long way to go
However, not all countries in Southeast Asia can promote the "two giants" electronic payment platform so smoothly, Vietnam may be a special case.
Lu Sheng, former general manager of an international bank in Vietnam, said in an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald that Vietnam is currently a cash economy and cannot use Alipay or WeChat to pay for online shopping or daily consumption.
In his view, the possibility that the "two giants" will change the development prospects of the Vietnamese banking industry is not great. The current impact on the Vietnamese banking industry can be said to be negligible. “The Vietnamese government is unlikely to open up to the market for them, and Vietnam has its own third-party payment platform, but because of its business relationship, its current operating status is not ideal. The two giants can make breakthroughs in the acquisition of Vietnam’s domestic third-party platform, but The habits of the market have not yet been nurtured, so achieving them in the short term is more difficult and requires a lot of capital investment."
It is understood that the current use of local credit cards in Vietnam has not yet been popularized. The main users are high-income groups and white-collar workers working in Fortune 500 companies, accounting for only 2%-5% of the population. In addition, most of the online payment methods in Vietnam still remain at cash on delivery, and the courier is responsible for collecting cash.
The above-mentioned person said that there is still a relatively large distance from the popularization of third-party payment platforms in Vietnam. The market prospect is very broad, but there is still a long way to go to achieve the current state of China.
Song Yinghui, executive director of the Regional Integration Research Office of the South Asian Association for Southeast Asian and Oceania Studies, China Modern International Relations Institute, told 21st Century Business Herald that some countries in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore and Thailand, can use third-party payment platforms. However, it is not as popular as China, and is mainly used in local airports, large shopping malls and foreign supermarket chains.
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