Study shows that PH ranked 1st in eCash adoption among Asia Pacific countries!

Based on the latest study from YouGov, the Philippines is top one among 10 countries in APAC in terms of new eCash adopters.

File photo of a GCash user

Safety and convenience triggered more users to use digital payments

The recent study by the research agency has a title "Mapping a digitally secure path for the future of payments in APAC". It was performed in key territories in the region like Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

According to Kaspersky, the responses were collated in July 2021 from a total of 1,618 respondents surveyed across the countries mentioned above. The respondents are working professionals who are aged 18 to 65 years and digital payment users.

Kaspersky just reported that 37 percent of the Filipinos said that they began using digital payment methods when pandemic happened. This is followed by India at 23 percent, Australia at 15 percent, Vietnam at 14 percent, Indonesia at 13 percent, and Thailand at 13 percent.

On the other hand, China got the lowest number of 1st time users of digital payment users at 5 percent. Even though that is the case, the said country has already got a high number of mobile payment users pre-pandemic.

Aside from that, the research discovered that 90 percent of the Asian respondents have used mobile payment apps at least once in the past 12 months. About 15 percent of them only started using these platforms after the COVID-19 happened.

Kaspersky noted that safety and convenience may be the factors on why users decided to use financial technologies in making payments. More than 50 percent of the respondents answered that they started using digital payment methods during the pandemic because of these attributes. The company added,

From these solid statistics, we can infer that the pandemic has triggered more people to dip their toes into the digital economy, which may fully dethrone cash use here in the next three to five years.

Moreover, the cybersecurity firm advised eCash users in APAC to be cautious of fake communications related to electronic payments. Allegedly, it's better for them to use their own computer and internet connection when making payments online. Aside from that, they must not share their passwords and "holistic solution" of using security products. These are practical steps to minimize the risk of falling victim to online threats and to keep their financial information safe.

Source: Inquirer