Malaysia witnesses mobile payment, e-commerce boom thanks to Chinese tech giants
Twenty-nine-year-old Farhad Fahd Bin Othman, a white collar worker based in Kuala Lumpur, has long been dreaming about using a mobile phone to handle all daily transactions, like the people of his age do in China. So the minute he heard about a new mobile application called the Touch n’ Go e-wallet, he didn’t hesitate to download it.
“I find it very useful because everything is in one wallet. Not only can I use it in QR transit, I can also use it for other payments such as food. When I want to buy something, I can even use it to pay my bill. I use it daily, actually,” said Farhad, referring to the time he used the application to enter a subway station in downtown Kuala Lumpur.
The Touch n’ Go e-wallet is powered by Alipay, a mobile payment platform under Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba that has helped to build a new ecosystem in China.
Starting operation just this year, the e-wallet embodies the big ambitions of Touch n’ Go, a payment service provider under the CIMB banking group and Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba.
The mobile app has already incorporated a cluster of functions to make everyday life more convenient, including the payment of utility bills, flights and cinema tickets.
Before the introduction of the e-wallet, local Malaysians were already used to paying for road tolls with their Touch n’ Go cards, which coupled with a device called SmartTag allow drivers to pass toll gates without having to stop.
But Syahrunizam Samsudin, CEO of TNG Digital, reckons that in order to promote wider usage of the platform in other Asian regions, his company must collaborate with Chinese tech firms.
WeChat Pay, a Chinese mobile payment platform under Alibaba rival Tencent Holdings, is now available for local users to make payments in Malaysian ringgit.
Xiong Wuzhen, director of engineering at Ant Financial’s International Business Unit, said that although such transactions are widely accepted in Malaysia, the platform still has a low penetration rate in the wider perspective of cashless payments.
And although the Touch n’ Go e-wallet is based on Ant Financial’s hugely popular Alipay platform, Xiong said that it still needs time to fully adapt to local people’s needs.
He believes that Malaysia, empowered by Chinese tech firms like Ant Financial, will one day develop into a cashless economy like China.
“So I think it will take some time, but I am very hopeful it will happen very quickly as well,” he said.
China’s mobile payment platforms are also helping many local businesses in Malaysia by providing them with easy transaction methods to meet the demands of rising numbers of Chinese tourists. Both Alipay and WeChat Pay are now widely available in many tourist hotspots and convenience stores.