Key takeaways
- Digital payments are surging in popularity and are on track to beat cash in becoming the region's leading payment method. The use of cash in this region fell 12% year-on-year in 2023
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China and India are world leaders when it comes to digital wallet use. 82% of e-commerce and 66% of physical purchases were made with digital wallets in China last year.
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South Korea and Japan see relatively low use of mobile wallets. However, mobile wallet use is forecast to rise rapidly in these markets by 2027.
Digital payments are on the rise in the APAC region. Indeed, according to data from Statista, they are more common than any other type of payment in Asia-Pacific, with digital wallets the most used method for both point-of-sale (POS) and e-commerce payments.
While APAC covers 38 different markets with varying levels of internet connectivity and smartphone usage, the growing popularity of digital payments and rapid fall in the use of cash – falling 12% year-on-year in 2023, according to Worldpay's Global Payments Report 2024 – make it a global leader when it comes to mobile wallets.
Which markets are leading the way with mobile wallet use?
Leading the way are the two most populous nations on the planet, China and India. Worldpay’s data shows that 82% of e-commerce and 66% of physical purchases were made with digital wallets in China in 2023, a fair distance ahead of India which saw 56% of e-commerce payments and 51% in-store purchases with digital wallets over the same period.
But other APAC markets are also seeing significant numbers of payments being made with mobile wallets. For e-commerce, digital wallets are the leading payment method in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Physical purchases using mobile wallets are also comparatively common in these markets, as well as Thailand and Hong Kong.
Interestingly, South Korea and Japan – two of the most economically developed countries in the region – see lower levels of digital wallet use relative to other APAC nations. Further data from Statista forecasts Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and The Philippines will be the fastest growth markets for mobile wallet penetration in APAC up to 2025, with Japan and South Korea just behind.
Which mobile wallets are APAC consumers using?
Despite the wide diversity of the APAC region, there are a number of digital wallet providers that pop up in several markets such as Apple Pay, Google Wallet, PayPal, and ShopeePay. Super-apps Alipay and WeChat Pay are dominating the mobile wallet space in China and Hong Kong, while local mobile wallets are also in abundance across other APAC territories.
Options such as DANA in Indonesia, Touch ‘n Go in Malaysia, GCash in the Philippines, Kakao Pay in South Korea, Prompt Pay in Thailand and MoMo in Vietnam are all popular mobile wallets with growing numbers of users.
How to get started with mobile wallets
Organisations operating in the APAC region that want to take advantage of the growing popularity of mobile wallets should download MeaWallet’s handy guide: “How to get started with mobile wallets”.
MeaWallet can help your business if you want to offer your customers mobile wallet functionality, either through the network of established OEM wallets like Apple Pay or Google Wallet, or by enabling NFC payments for your banking app.
Through a single connection, you can seamlessly connect to all major payment schemes, and let MeaWallet handle all of the security, compliance, certification and regulatory updates.
MeaWallet's tokenization solutions, enabled through the Mea Token Platform, underpin our mobile wallet services, giving you peace of mind when it comes to transaction security and minimising fraud.
If you want to find out more about MeaWallet’s mobile wallet and tokenization offerings, get in touch today.
