IPay88 businesses set to soar in 2017
KUALA LUMPUR: Online payment service provider, iPay88 Sdn Bhd expects to double or even triple the number of its online transactions, volume and sales this year following a tremendous performance in 2016, executive director Chan Kok Long said.
Last year, iPay88 recorded 38.2 million online transactions via its payment gateway systems, recording a substantial increase of 161 per cent from 14.6 million transactions in 2015, he said.
“We expect growth may even triple if WeChat and AliPay from China takes an aggressive play in Malaysia this year, depending on the technology to be used,” Chan said in a media briefing on the company’s performance for 2016 and outlook for 2017 here, yesterday.
He said iPay88, which currently commands over 70 per cent of Malaysia’s entire online payment system transactions, saw online banking reign as the preferred payment option particularly for e-commerce and online shopping with 11.5 million transactions recorded as compared to 5.3 million credit card transactions in 2016.
“We expect online banking to continue its popularity as consumers become more wary of spending especially as the economy still looks uncertain.
“Consumers no matter what will need to spend, but nowadays they want to spend their money wisely, that can save them cost and give convenience like the general marketplace for example Lazada and 11street.my,” he said.
Chan said online shoppers on marketplace grew in volume by 182.84 per cent, with delivery services increasing by 243 per cent, telco services for bill payment rose 81 per cent and transportation services rose by 67 per cent.
The company revealed that Malaysian online consumers’ purchases using mobile phones grew significantly by 148.9 per cent from 3.7 million in 2015 to 9.4 million in 2016.
“Comparatively, online shopping on desktop showed only 29.7 per cent rise, from 5.8 million transactions in 2015 to 7.6 million in 2016.
“Retailers are also taking a mobile-first approach to desktop and are adding value to their mobile applications like offering instant discounts, points collection or rebates.
“Moving forward, we expect to see three main disruptive technology coming our way involving virtual reality in the marketplace, biotechnology payments and usage of drones in e-commerce,” said Chan, who hoped that the findings could be used as a reference by retailers in Malaysia. — Bernama