Mobile Wallets Spotlight: Indonesia

Over the past 2 years, Southeast Asia added more than 70 million online shoppers, led by Indonesia. Accepting payments through mobile wallets in Indonesia is crucial. This is because wallets are one of the most popular online payment methods in the country and growing:

• Mobile wallet users: 63M in 2020, forecast to grow to 202M by 2025
• Mobile wallet ownersihp: 26% of the population, 77% by 2025
• Mobile wallet transaction volume: 1.7B transactions, 16B transactions by 2025
• Mobile wallet transaction value: $28B, $107B by 2025

The Indonesian mobile payments market is extremely. There are 5 major mobile wallets available for consumers. These are OVO, ShopeePay, LinkAja, GoPay & Dana.

On average, consumers in Indonesia use 3.16 mobile wallets at the same time. Multiple wallets are used as each wallet offers consumers unique benefits, discounts & services.

Indonesian consumers are transitioning to mobile wallets from cash

For merchants who already accept bank-based payments, adopting mobile wallets help reach new audience segments. Out of 1,035 consumers surveyed in April & May 2021 for their previous primary payment methods, cash was the leading one:

• 66% used cash payments
• 63% used bank transfers
• 44% used debit cards
• 24% used mobile phone payments
• 22% used credit cards
• 8% used cheques

Credit card ownership in Indonesia is extremely low at 2% and is the driving force behind consumers adopting mobile wallets. 73% of consumers surveyed said the primary reason for using a mobile wallet is getting access to a digital payment method:

The primary use case for mobile wallets is online shopping

So what do consumers in Indonesia use their mobile wallet account for?

Payments and mobile top-ups are the top use cases at 83% each. But consumers are also using mobile wallets also for P2P transfers, bill payment, receiving payments and withdrawing cash at high rates. This signals the use of the mobile wallet as a proxy for a bank account:

While mobile payments are being used also at point-of-sale in Indonesia, the use of online shopping is significantly greater, with 81% of respondents:  

Conclusions

The data on Indonesia shows consumers are picking mobile wallets as their primary choice for online payments.

For merchants looking to grow their revenue in Indonesia, connecting to mobile wallets to reach these consumers is crucial. If you are looking to launch mobile wallets in Indonesia and other Asian countries through one turnkey integration, get in touch.

For more data on mobile wallet payments in Indonesia and 20+ other markets, download our Mobile Wallets Report 2021.