The Filipino fintech scene is poised for steady growth in 2020.
oleh Preetam kaushik
Spurred by the relentless advances in digital technology, fintech has achieved spectacular growth across the world in the last few years. The Asia-Pacific, and particularly the ASEAN region, has emerged as a hotspot for innovation in this exciting new field.
Representing one-sixth of the entire regional population, the Philippines is an alluring market for Southeast Asian fintech firms. But instead of impressive growth and rapid advancement, Filipino fintech story has been of slow but steady traction.
Filipino fintech has had some memorable 2019 dan awal 2020 moments
The last 12 months have seen fintech startups in the country take some significant strides. 2019 kicked off with the news that Coins.ph, a homegrown mobile wallet, had been acquired by regional unicorn Go-Jek for S$100 million (US$72 million).
Pada bulan September 2019, Manila-based payments processing startup PayMongo became the first Filipino startup to get seed funding from Y-Combinator, the US-based incubator.
januari 2020 was a watershed moment in Philippine fintech, with the launch of Tonik, the market’s first-ever digital bank. The Singapore-based startup was issued the country’s first digital-banking license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Cth:). Its issuing was a clear indicator of institutional support from the country’s central financial regulator.
The fintech fundamentals are strong (untuk kebanyakan bahagian)
The BSP has ambitious plans to increase the national adoption of online payments by 30% dalam 2020. But to fulfil this vision of a cashless Filipino economy, the country needs a mature fintech landscape.
Terdapat beberapa faktor yang menggalakkan yang menunjukkan uptick berlaku dalam penggunaan pembayaran tanpa tunai. Untuk permulaan, populasi Filipina adalah sangat muda, dengan purata usia hanya 25.7 tahun. Mereka juga antara yang paling digital aktif di dunia, menghabiskan masa lebih kurang 10 jam sehari talian.
muda ini, celik teknologi penduduk juga melakukan lebih banyak aktiviti ekonomi mereka dalam talian. Pada tahun 2019, Filipina pasaran e-dagang berkembang kepada lebih AS $ 1 bilion dalam saiz, dengan CAGR sebanyak 10%.
Menggabungkan mereka metrik dengan tahap yang rendah perbankan penembusan hanya 23% dalam 2018 mengikut BSP angka-dan anda mempunyai koktel untuk pertumbuhan letupan dalam pembayaran alternatif dan model kredit.
pembayaran dalam talian, pinjaman pengguna, kredit SME, and foreign remittances are the key growth areas for Southeast Asian fintech players, and the Philippines is fertile ground.
There is a dearth of funding in the Filipino startup scene
PayMongo received a total seed funding of S$3.77 million (US $ 2.7 juta) as part of its Y-Combinator deal. According to Crunchbase, Filipino startups have secured a combined US$400 million in funding. But that is just a fraction of the US$5 billion hauled in by fintech startups across the entire Asia-Pacific region.
It is not as if the fintech landscape in the country is devoid of any noticeable activity. Pada tahun 2019, a report from Startup Genome ranked Manila as one of the most fintech-friendly cities di dunia.
Walau bagaimanapun, Manila is a teeming modern metropolis with an urban population of 1.7 juta. It does not represent the entire country, especially in terms of development, infrastruktur, communications, and accessibility. Herein lies one of the key hurdles slowing down fintech growth in the country.
Digital infrastructure, though improved, continues to be a major funding bottleneck
Apart from Manila and a few major urban centres, the rest of the Philippines is scattered across an archipelago of over 7,000 pulau-pulau. Much of the country is undeveloped or underdeveloped, with limited access and communications networks.
This is a key characteristic it shares with its ASEAN neighbour: Indonesia. The pair rank well below their Southeast Asian counterparts in global internet speed kedudukan, both in broadband and mobile speeds.
Tetapi keadaan berubah. Average connection speeds have almost tripled, daripada 7.9 Mbits in 2016 to nearly 20 Mbits in 2019. The country also became the first ASEAN nation to launch 5G services last year. While that is largely a symbolic gesture, given the relative lack of 5G-enabled devices in the market, the country’s 5G capabilities could give the country a regional head start as the next generation of communication technology becomes ubiquitous in the next few years.
There is ample cause for cautious optimism in Filipino fintech
Trumpeting about the coming of an “inflection point” in Filipino fintech has become something of an annual ritual. While that inflection point has failed to materialize so far, there is enough change on the ground to be optimistic.
The Philippine economy is growing in step with the rest of Southeast Asia and the government is keen to leverage fintech technology to aid financial inclusion, cashless payments, and e-commerce growth.
The Innovative Startup Act, menandatangani undang-undang oleh Presiden Rodrigo Duterte di 2019, menjadikan ia lebih mudah untuk usahawan Filipina dan "pemboleh startup" asing (pelabur dan VC) untuk menukar idea-idea mereka ke dalam kerja perniagaan-tanda yang jelas bahawa kerajaan bersedia untuk menyediakan sokongan perundangan untuk startups fledgeling.
BSP telah bekerja gaya kotak pasir yang fleksibel "Ujian dan Belajar" pendekatan untuk syarikat baru yang mengawal selia kerja dalam alam tradisinya konservatif kewangan dan perbankan, dengan sedikit kejayaan. Potensi transformatif FinTech di Filipina akan terus membawa perubahan positif kepada pembayaran digital dan sektor pinjaman. Walaupun ia masih mungkin beberapa tahun lagi untuk pertumbuhan letupan, dan ketidaktentuan global yang sedang berlangsung sekitar perang perdagangan AS-China dan kesan jangkitan virus Covid-19 melakukan apa-apa untuk mempercepatkan revolusi kewangan digital, pembangunan perlahan dan mantap sebenarnya adalah prognosis yang sangat baik.
