21 May 2019

Vietnam has witnessed the highest growth in mobile payments in the past year, according to the Global Consumer Insights Survey 2019 conducted by PwC.

The survey, which covered over 21,000 respondents from 27 territories, showed that the percentage of consumers using these services in Vietnam increased to 61 per cent, up from 37 per cent last year. The increase was also the largest in the six southeast Asian countries that took part in the survey.

In Singapore, mobile payments climbed from 34 per cent in 2018 to 46 per cent in 2019.

The rest of Southeast Asia also saw increases in mobile payments with Thailand up 19 percentage points to 67 per dent, Malaysia up 17 percentage points to 40 per cent, and Philippines up 14 percentage points to 45 per cent.

Indonesia reflected the slowest increase in the usage of mobile payments with a rise of just 9 percentage points to 47 per cent.

In the Middle East, which was the second fastest growing region with regards to mobile payments adoption globally, the percentage increased by 20 percentage points to 45 per cent. However, China remained unchanged at 86 per cent. Across all territories, 34 per cent of consumers paid for purchases using mobile payments, up from 24 per cent a year earlier.

The survey further found that consumers in Asia are more socially engaged online than their counterparts in Europe and the Americas.

Respondents from Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam led the way globally in making purchases directly through social media posts on platforms like Instagram
and Facebook, with 50 per cent, 49 per cent and 48 per cent of survey respondents indicating they do so, respectively.

Globally, only 21 per cent of respondents made purchases directly through social media. Among product and service categories, the survey found that social media is most likely to affect purchasing decisions related to fashion.

“Social media platforms are already mature in Southeast Asia.

The trend in online shopping, moving forward, is the consolidation of e-commerce players with fewer big players providing that gateway,” said Charles Loh, southeast Asia consumer and industrial products consulting leader at PwC. “There seems to be a consolidator present in every market.”

Elsewhere, nine per cent of global consumers said they use voice technology to shop online either weekly or even more frequently