More than 70% of southeast Asia’s roughly 600 million people do not use Banks, up from 30 percent of the world as a whole.

At present, the mobile payment market in southeast Asia is still a blue ocean, and no payment company has dominated the market.

According to statistics, about 44% of the total e-commerce transactions in southeast Asia in 2017 were paid in cash, and it is predicted that cash payment will remain the most popular payment method in the next three years.




As of 2025, the e-commerce market in Southeast Asia is expected to reach $88 billion. To accelerate the development of e-commerce，southeast Asian governments are trying to create cashless economies. Vietnam and Thailand lead other southeast Asian countries in electronic payments.

Vietnam and Thailand are enjoying a boom in mobile payments as more people use e-wallets to pay for goods and services without going through traditional middlemen such as Banks.

Viet Nam has been implementing electronic payments since 2008. Only about 40% of Vietnam’s roughly 95 million people have bank accounts, mainly in urban areas, while the number of mobile subscribers is as high as 120 million.

Earlier information and telecommunications technology companies such as Vietnam Post and Telecommunications group, Viettel and FPT have launched e-wallets to encourage consumers to reduce their cash use.




But until recently, there were signs of positive change in Vietnam’s cashless payments.

According to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers（PWC）, the number of Vietnamese using mobile payments in stores is now growing faster than the rest of south-east Asia. The proportion of consumers using mobile payments in Vietnam increased from 37% in 2018 to 61% in 2019. PWC reported that “the range of mobile payment services is expanding.”

The payment app Momo, one of the most popular e-wallets in Vietnam today, registered 10 million users in November 2008, a tenfold increase from the previous two years. The app service allows users to pay bills, send money or buy goods, among other things, at more than 100,000 payment points nationwide.

ZaloPay, another Vietnam mobile payment startup, has been growing rapidly since it was launched in 2017. ZaloPay’s largest user comes from the parent company VNG’s 100 million user network.

In recent years, Vietnam’s e-commerce market has grown rapidly. Vietnam’s e-commerce market reported 2016, with a total value of $4 billion, an increase of 22% in the year, and Vietnam has become a globally attractive e-commerce market, according to a report by the Nielsen Market Research Institute.



From this, it can be seen that Vietnam’s e-commerce potential has yet to be tapped, and with the rapid development of e-commerce, the mobile payment market has been expanding.

Thailand has the highest non-cash payment rate in southeast Asia, with a usage index of 67%.

Mobile banking is booming in Thailand, although most of the mobile phone bank users do not yet have credit cards. In march last year Thailand’s four biggest Banks, Bangkok bank, Kasikornbank, Siam commercial bank and Krung bank of Thailand, lowered transaction fees at Banks for Internet and mobile accounts.

“Cash on delivery” and “payment over the counter” account for 75% of online shopping in Thailand, while online banking accounts for less than 20%。The Thai Government has recognized this problem and is actively developing e-government (including electronic landing visas, electronic tax registers, traffic cards, etc.), with Chinese tourists transferring the concept of “cashless payment” to Thailand, more and more people are paying attention to and using mobile payments.

These trends are consistent with the Thai government’s plan to help the cash economy gradually transition to a non-cash economy.

Despite the government’s efforts to reduce cash use, mobile payment rates in the more developed regions of South-East Asia, such as Singapore and Malaysia, are much lower than in other countries. Cash and cheque payments still account for 40% of payments in Singapore, with ATM networks spread across the city.



However, the Singapore Government is continuing its efforts to improve the cashless status quo. Last year, the Singapore banking association launched PayNow, a service that allows users to transfer money via their mobile phone instead of a bank account. The central Bank of Singapore said that in the future, whether it is credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, whether larger merchants or small vendors, or international users, can be paid through Singapore unified QR Code.

The increase in online shopping, the spread of the mobile internet and the popularity of e-wallets can be seen as a growth in cashless use.

QR code payment will eventually become part of the payment system in Southeast Asian countries, but it now seems to be a long way from catching up with China and Japan, which we expect will take almost 6-7 years.