With the movement of people temporarily restricted by the circuit breaker in Singapore and the fight against COVID-19 ongoing, people are increasingly turning to technology to minimize disruption in their everyday lives.
Contactless payments, for example, have become an essential part of shopping online, paying bills, and ordering food. Furthermore, contactless payment platforms are fast evolving to deliver more innovative functionality and fulfill consumer needs such as payroll, entertainment, and even donations.
In Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, local users have gathered donations through their e-wallets, raising more than US$600,000 in contactless donations. These donations to charitable organisations enable vulnerable groups to immediately access the support they need, including food, masks, and other protective equipment.
In India and Indonesia, there are nearly 50 million people who are even using e-wallets to access accurate and timely information about the pandemic.
E-wallets in South and Southeast Asia including TrueMoney in Thailand, GCash in the Philippines, Touch ‘n Go eWallet in Malaysia, and bKash in Bangladesh have adapted their products quickly to help support the lives of people across the region in innovative and unique ways.
Contactless Payment surging in popularity in the Philippines and Thailand
GCash, the leading mobile wallet in the Philippines has seen a surge in the number of downloads and has ranked the most downloaded free app in the Finance category in the Google Play Store.
Since March, the most used services in the GCash wallet include ‘Buy Load and Remittance’, of which the total transaction volume has grown by more than 30 per cent.
Consequently, many businesses have had to close temporarily. Only supermarkets and F&B outlets remain open, but are limited to take-away and delivery options only.
In order to comply with the measures and to reduce the risk of infection, TrueMoney has joined hands with popular local merchants such as 7-Eleven, Makro, CP Freshmart, True Coffee, Chester’s, as well as street food stall sellers to promote contactless payment and hygiene awareness.
TrueMoney’s newly-launched in-app feature ‘Shop Near Me’ helps consumers easily locate nearby stores and place orders or requests for delivery.
With the adoption of contactless payments accelerating during COVID-19, TrueMoney has seen the number of app downloads grow by 20 per cent in recent months.
Contactless Rescue – e-wallets become a lifeline for those in need
While the COVID-19 outbreak continues, Bangladesh has tightened enforcement of social distancing rules and extended the nationwide lockdown. As a result, millions of workers who have been living on daily wages are now left jobless amid one of the worst global crises.
Serving around 40 million users in Bangladesh, bKash, the largest mobile financial services provider in the country, has been working closely with the Government to facilitate the distribution of salaries and Government incentives to workers.
As most workers do not have bank accounts, bKash as an integrated platform, is helping them receive their salaries through mobile wallets. After receiving their salary, workers can cash out from any of the 230,000 bKash agent-points located across the country, or use cashless services like ‘Send Money’, ‘Mobile Recharge’, ‘Payments’, etc.
A garment worker named Shetu, aged 28, who lives in a remote corner of north-eastern Bangladesh, used to receive her salary in person at the factory. However, since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Bangladesh, the factory has been closed and many workers were left unpaid as the majority of them do not have bank accounts.
Thanks to the Government initiative to disburse payments through mobile financial service providers like bKash, Shetu has been able to receive her monthly salary, enabling her to feed her family of five.
“Thanks to the authorities as well as bKash for making a way for me to get my salary without being physically present at the factory. This service has been a lifeline for many workers like me,” said Shetu.
Contactless Philanthropy – more people donating from the safety of their homes
Touch ‘n Go eWallet is extending a helping hand to the underprivileged communities by providing a better solution for the rakyat (citizens) to offer financial relief directly to local non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
As the nation’s choice for cashless transactions, Touch ‘n Go eWallet has made it a priority to highlight the plight of those in its network such as Kechara Soup Kitchen, Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation, and Generasi Gemilang.
Proceeds are channeled directly to Malaysian NGOs, enabling a more effective and more efficient response to the needs of vulnerable and low income families. To date, Touch ‘n Go eWallet has facilitated donations worth more than RM280,000 to a total of 22 NGOs in Malaysia.
Kechara Soup Kitchen for example, was able to raise enough funds to provide food and essential items to the low-income families who have been affected by the pandemic.
Single parents, elderly people living alone, and families who have lost their source of income from the low-income urban areas to the Orang Asli community in Kampong Orang Asli Lebak, Gabong, Pasir, and Bentung areas, are now receiving the help they desperately need in the form of food and health essentials.
Struggling non-Malaysians have not been left out. Tzu-Chi Buddhist Foundation, with the aid of donors, have raised funds to distribute food and health essentials including face masks and hand sanitisers which are increasingly difficult to purchase.
Contactless Fun – stay-home life can be awesome with entertainment accessible through e-wallets
To support citizens and residents of Malaysia to continue living healthy and productive lives at home, Touch ‘n Go eWallet introduced ‘MCO Buddy’.
The platform curates crowdsourced bite-sized lifestyle content, ranging from recipes, indoor fitness workouts, personal finance information, and information on making charitable donations, all aimed at keeping people engaged and active.
Touch ‘n Go eWallet users can access all the MCO Buddy lifestyle content through the wallet. Since the roll-out in early April, MCO Buddy has garnered more than 100,000 views and widespread support from the local community, including fitness guru Kevin Zahri and celebrity chef Sherson Lian, both of whom are regular content contributors to the platform.