Digital wallets are convenient to use. It is hardly surprising if they have become an important need for many people. This applies to various parts of the world, including Indonesia. In this post, we explain the overview of digital wallet Indonesia, its landscape, and the collaboration between banks and non-bank players.
Overview
For a very long time, cash has been the primary mean of transaction in Indonesia. In fact, Indonesia is the world’s second-largest cash-first economy with approximately 52% of the archipelago population is still unbanked. At the same time, it is also the world’s fourth-largest smartphone economy.
According to Bank Indonesia, the value of digital transactions in October 2021 reached IDR 29.23 trillion, an almost 6% increase from the previous month’s IDR 27.63 trillion. Compared to the same period in the previous year, which reached IDR 18.79 trillion, it was a 55.55% increase.
The increasing trend also happens in the volume of digital transactions. In October 2021, the volume of digital transactions reached 514.26 million, a 9.20% increase from the previous month’s 470.90 million and a 30.89% increase from the same period in the previous year’s 392.88 million.
Digital Wallet Indonesia Landscape
Currently, the country’s digital landscape has become more fragmented and competitive, with over 48 licensed digital wallet platforms competing for the market. What’s interesting is that the landscape is dominated by local players, both from the public and private sectors.
According to an article by Market Research Indonesia (Indonesia Fintech Lending) recent study, the top 2 digital wallet platforms based on most downloads and active monthly users during Q2 2019 – Q2 2020 period are GoPay and OVO.
However, when the rank system is based on customer reviews on Google Play, the top 2 leading digital wallet platforms are Dana and LinkAja, both of which have a rating of 4.5 stars.
The Collaboration between Banks and Non-bank Players
It is interesting to note that banks and non-bank players are collaborating to amass scale. For example, LinkAja is a digital wallet platform created by the collaboration between three banks (Bank Mandiri, BRI, and BNI) and a telecommunication company (Telkomsel).
As such, in just a year, LinkAja was able to increase its new user by 65%, grow revenue by 250%, and quadruple its transaction volume. In November 2020, Grab invested in LinkAja, a step followed by Gojek, who did the same in March 2021.
In addition to providing access to technology and a wider ecosystem, the partnerships enable the government-owned digital wallet platform to be used as a payment option in both the Grab and Gojek platforms. These, in turn, can propel the future growth of LinkAja.
Other international technology companies, like Samsung Pay and WeChat, have shown confidence in the country’s market as well. In late 2019, Samsung Pay collaborated with GoPay and Dana to integrate their digital wallet services into Samsung phones.
In early 2020, WeChat entered the country through a partnership with CIMB Niaga. PayPal and Facebook (now Meta) also have shown their interest in doing strategic investments in Gojek. Digital wallet Indonesia has good prospects. So far, it has positive trends both in value and volume of digital transactions. The landscape is competitive and dominated by local players. Interestingly enough, both banks and non-bank players are collaborating to amass scale.
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