Moving to a Cashless Society?

Mobile payments—the ability to complete a transaction on a smartphone - is creating a new era of transactions that is disrupting the traditional ways of making payments. New findings released from Marketbuzzz study in Thailand shows the current state of digital payment adoption and how mobile phones have affected the ways in which we use the devices for payments.

No doubt mobile payments is gaining momentum and it has been fuelled by a number of influential factors:

1. Growth in smartphones users and increasing adoption of a digital lifestyle

2. Better telecommunication infrastructure and financial payment processes,

3. The government embracing of national electronic payment (e-payment).

According to a recent survey in August 2016 by Marketbuzzz, where n=2,000 Smartphone owners in Thailand were interviewed on the topic of 'Using Mobile for Payments', the study's main findings include:

· 50% of smartphone owners are already using some type of mobile payments already.

· Mobile Banking and Mobile Shopping are the two top mobile payments with over half of the smartphone owners using them. Not surprisingly, Mobile Banking is used more frequently with over 6 times per month on average and Mobile Shopping just under 4 (3.8) times per month on average.

· Just 17% of smartphone users are currently using Mobile Wallets, yet the potential is there as those users are using the mobile wallet more frequently than all other payment options except for mobile banking.

· TrueMoney has the highest usage with 51% of smartphone owners currently using it, followed by Line Pay with 30% and mPay with 28%.

· While Mobile Wallets are only in it's infancy, for those who are using Mobile Wallets, there is a universal claim that it's very easy to use and it would be even easier with:

o Omipresence – must be accepted by many points of service

o Better feedback – able to provide receipts of transactions

o Improvement of the interface – such as tap and go payments.

· For those that are currently using Mobile Payments, 2 out of 3 claim they would use Mobile Payments about the same amount as they do now – 5 times per month on average – and one 1 out of 3 claim they would use it more often.

· There is limited barriers from a consumer perspective with almost everyone who have used it is agree that Mobile Payments makes payments easier, provides more choices for payment, allows them to make payments on the go (anywhere, anytime), and it's faster than other payment methods. There was some concern about the level of security, however 55% of users believe the level of security is high.

Grant Bertoli CEO of Marketbuzzz commented "As mobile payments gain momentum the study highlights the opportunities that exist for mobile payments. We are entering a new era in payments, utilising the mobile phone, which will clearly reshape the entire financial system based on consumer's demand for convenient, faster and more efficient payments"

Simply put Bertoli said "Thais are increasingly looking for more real-time or immediate payments, and using your phone instead of carrying extra cash or more cards offers a viable alternative".

Bertoli also added "While consumer demand was there, there is also the need for greater collaboration in the payment ecosystem, between banks, retailers, telecom providers, fintech companies and associated governance, to ensure that new methods of payments are fast, seamless and secure".

No doubt the opportunity is there for Thailand's mobile payments to become a viable everyday option for payment over the next few years. We chat on our Mobile, we search on our Mobile, we game on them, surf on them, so why not make payments on them!.

Marketbuzzz currently utilizes the user base of Buzzebees which has over 22 million users. It is the biggest database in South East Asia. In this ecosystem, we can conduct mobile survey effectively, fast, accurately, and everywhere every time like 24/7. Apart from that, we can design and customize the questionnaire in many aspects based on client needs. Further, there are several kinds of services for mobile survey such as product development, brand improvement, advertisement evaluation, customer and employee satisfaction, and consumer behavior study.

• ข่าว Smartphone
• ข่าว Marketbuzzz