Singapore's mobile payments growth hits 46% in 2019

It lags behind Vietnam in terms of growth rate.

Mobile payments in Singapore climbed 12 ppt from 34% in 2018 to 46% in 2019, making the nation the fifth fastest in terms of mobile payments growth in Southeast Asia, according to a research by PwC.

This is said to signify a payoff in the efforts by the government and other mobile payments players.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has seen the highest growth in mobile payments in the past year globally, increasing to 61%, up from 37% in 2018.

“This contrasts with Singapore that also shows strong gains. However, the sophisticated and established traditional ecosystem, as well as abundant and potentially confusing number of choices in mobile payments can also slow down adoption,” said Shirish Jain, payments director at Strategy&.

The rest of Southeast Asia also saw growth in mobile payments with Thailand up 19 ppt to 67%, Malaysia up 17 ppt to 40%, and the Philippines up 14 ppt to 45%, respectively. Indonesia reflected the slowest increase in the usage of mobile payments at just 9 ppt to 47%.