While the growth of Alibaba and Alipay as well as Tencent and WeChat pay in China is well known, there have been questions about whether a similar model can succeed outside of China. Local players as well as those Chinese giants themselves are starting to show that a super-app may well succeed in other markets in Asia too.
April 01, 2019 | Richard Hartung- Innovative new competitors from airlines and transport are working to upend financial services by driving innovation and inclusion
- Behemoths from China are localising to drive international expansion
- For any platform, data is becoming an increasingly important driver of growth
Just a few years ago, few would have expected airlines and transport companies to power financial services. Now, however, they’re doing just that.
“BigPay is our version of a challenger bank,” said AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes, with “low cost transparency and value to the unbanked. It’s no different from AirAsia. In financial services, there is insurance, banking. We see a similarity between AirAsia and fintech - low fees, transparency and volume. The similarity is uncanny.”
The 5-year goals, Fernandes said, are to create a payment system that allows interoperability, to make moving money easily and to build a lending platform. “We hope BigPay will make Southeast Asia a much smaller place.”
A key advantage that BigPay has, Fernandes said, is the ability of AirAsia to get its 140 million customers onto the platform. “There are not many ASEAN brands with our database. Our customers use remittance services and are overcharged - high exchange rates, ripped off. Many customers have difficulty getting access to capital - we want to start a lending platform.”
Grab aims to grow from a Super App to a Super wallet
As it expands, said Grab Financial Group senior managing director Reuben Lai, Grab has two objectives: To take consumers from offline to online, and to support small businesses.
It is well along towards reaching its goals. “We are now the largest payments ecosystem in Southeast Asia,” Lai said. “We have access to money across six economies, with 600,000 merchants. We have the largest consumer base, 138 million downloads. We have world class partners – Maste...
Categories:
Keywords:Platform, Microinsurance, Biometric, Blockchain, Technology, Financial Inclusion, Microloans
While the growth of Alibaba and Alipay as well as Tencent and WeChat pay in China is well known, there have been questions about whether a similar model can succeed outside of China. Local players as well as those Chinese giants themselves are starting to show that a super-app may well succeed in other markets in Asia too.
April 01, 2019 | Richard Hartung- Innovative new competitors from airlines and transport are working to upend financial services by driving innovation and inclusion
- Behemoths from China are localising to drive international expansion
- For any platform, data is becoming an increasingly important driver of growth
Just a few years ago, few would have expected airlines and transport companies to power financial services. Now, however, they’re doing just that.
“BigPay is our version of a challenger bank,” said AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes, with “low cost transparency and value to the unbanked. It’s no different from AirAsia. In financial services, there is insurance, banking. We see a similarity between AirAsia and fintech - low fees, transparency and volume. The similarity is uncanny.”
The 5-year goals, Fernandes said, are to create a payment system that allows interoperability, to make moving money easily and to build a lending platform. “We hope BigPay will make Southeast Asia a much smaller place.”
A key advantage that BigPay has, Fernandes said, is the ability of AirAsia to get its 140 million customers onto the platform. “There are not many ASEAN brands with our database. Our customers use remittance services and are overcharged - high exchange rates, ripped off. Many customers have difficulty getting access to capital - we want to start a lending platform.”
Grab aims to grow from a Super App to a Super wallet
As it expands, said Grab Financial Group senior managing director Reuben Lai, Grab has two objectives: To take consumers from offline to online, and to support small businesses.
It is well along towards reaching its goals. “We are now the largest payments ecosystem in Southeast Asia,” Lai said. “We have access to money across six economies, with 600,000 merchants. We have the largest consumer base, 138 million downloads. We have world class partners – Maste...
Categories:
Keywords:Platform, Microinsurance, Biometric, Blockchain, Technology, Financial Inclusion, Microloans
