Some may call it a war between two digital companies. But, for them, it is a matter of “coopetition” to attain what India and China have achieved—an almost cashless society.
Wednesday saw Globe Telecom Inc. and PLDT Inc. clashing and agreeing on financial technology, separately announcing the use of quick response (QR) codes for
retail purchases.
QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes originally designed to process data. It is now widely used in China and India—with about 450 million and 250 million users, respectively—for their retail payments.
On one hand, Globe, through its subsidiary Globe Fintech Innovations Inc., launched its QR code service, which enables its users to pay for products and services using its mobile-wallet application called GCash.
PLDT unit PayMaya Philippines Inc., on the other hand, announced the expansion of its QR code service, which was launched in May this year in select schools and establishments.
Mynt President Albert O. Tinio said the aim of the service is to allow those who are unbanked and uncarded to enjoy the benefits of digital banking.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that 7 of 10 Filipinos do not have bank accounts, depriving them of the potential gains from financial tools, such as credit, savings and insurance.
“If we don’t bring out technologies like these, at the very least, we are saying that these unbanked and uncarded Filipinos are excluded,” he said. “At this stage, it’s not about competition, but coopetition.”
For Manuel V. Pangilinan, who chairs PLDT, the time is ripe to push financial inclusion further, given the steady increase in smartphone and digital-services adoption.
“For digital-payments technologies to be widely adopted, it is important to foster the right conditions, build the ecosystem,” he said.
The QR service for GCash is currently available in about a hundred stores in Glorietta 4 in Makati. It will soon be available in all of the establishments of the mall by November 11.
Tinio said the service will be available in all of Ayala Corp.’s malls nationwide before the end of 2017.
“Our intention is for people to use it, because the problem is adoption. So what we want to do is not just make the service available in fat-tail merchants —your food and big retail establishments—but also in the long-tail ones —your micro businesses,” he said.
Roughly 4,000 stores will be equipped with the QR service by end-December, Tinio specified.
PayMaya’s QR service is available in a number of retail establishments in Metro Manila, Baguio, Cebu and Davao.
Soon, the payment option will be available in popular food chains, supermarkets and malls, such as McDonald’s, Army Navy, Domino’s Pizza and Gaisano Supermarkets, among others.
It will also be available in vendors in the provinces.
“As PayMaya continues to grow nationwide, we take a giant step for our customers by making QR code payments available to all kinds of merchants,” PayMaya President Orlando B. Vea said. To use the QR services of both companies, one need only to scan the QR code of the merchant they are buying from, indicating the amount of their purchase.
Tinio noted that this provides customers and merchants a better level of convenience, as transactions done through the QR code are quicker than cash-based ones.
For one, he explained, it removes the pain of having to give change to bills. It is much faster, as well, because customers will no longer have to whisk through a wad of cash to pay.
“What we did was we made it a tool for people to pay quickly, securely and conveniently,” Tinio said.
Currently, there are about 5 million GCash users in the Philippines, resulting in about P6 billion worth of transactions per month.
Its user base, according to Tinio, is expected to double to 10 million in a year’s time, given that more and more Filipinos are receptive to digital services. PayMaya, on the other hand, had a customer base of 6 million users last year, processing a total of P200 billion in 2016. The QR service, however, requires users to have access to the Internet. This, on the other hand, created what experts called as the digital divide, which then deprives those who do not have Internet access to education, information and communication and finance.
“Innovation is a good thing. We just wish that the duopoly was equally as aggressive in innovating for better service quality and value for money for their Internet-connectivity services,” Pierre Tito M. Galla, who founded Internet freedom group Democracy.PH, told the BusinessMirror.
Currently, 6 of 10 Filipinos have access to the Internet, according to consultancy firm We Are Social.
1 comment
Globe Telecom just lied to us in writing, via DM, stating one of their technical team had visited our house at a specific time and spoken with my wife. As myself and five house guests were in the house at the time it would not have gone unnoticed someone calling, they did not. I am appalled at this lack of business ethics by Globe Telecom, shameful behaviour to its customers.