The e-wallet space is getting more crowded with over 40 e-wallet licenses issued by Bank Negara so far.
Malaysia has an internet penetration rate of 86% and mobile phone penetration rate at 64%. Coupled with a large young population of 59% aged below 35 years old, Malaysia’s e-wallet industry is prime for growth.
We have surveyed 8K adults across Malaysia to study the awareness and consumer usage & attitude towards e-wallet. Despite the growing trends of e-wallet providers in Malaysia, the awareness has yet to catch up among the Malaysians. When it comes to public e-wallet awareness, traditional financial institutes have the competitive advantage over the non-traditional finance companies.
The difference in the e-wallet awareness among different demographics is clear. Younger adults are generally more likely to be aware of e-wallets.
E-wallets such as Boost has a higher awareness among the younger adults whereas Razer Pay has the largest awareness gap between the younger and older Malaysians.
Now to think that Malaysians generally have a good level of public awareness towards e-wallets, does high awareness translates to high usage frequencies or does it have a different story?
Only 11% of adults are regular e-wallet users (those who pay with e-wallet most of the time or whenever they can), whereas 13% of adults use e-wallet on a semi-regular basis (those who pays with e-wallet roughly half the time).
The majority of regular & semi-regular e-wallet users cite E-wallet as the most convenient payment method. There are more regular & semi-regular e-wallet users who find it easier to find physical stores that accept e-wallet payments than online stores.