This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on June 27, 2018 - July 3, 2018

PETALING JAYA: Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab said it is open to opportunities in the increasingly competitive digital payments industry, following its launch of GrabPay credits in Malaysia.

“The market for [e-payment] is very fragmented, so we believe consolidation will likely happen” Ooi Huey Tyng, managing director of GrabPay Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines said at a media briefing following the official launch of GrabPay credits yesterday.

Ooi declined to reveal whether Grab, which launched its push into the cashless payment market in Singapore earlier this year, is currently negotiating to acquire any existing digital payment companies.

“We are always open to opportunities,” she said.

In a country where the central bank has licensed 40 organisations as e-money issuers, GrabPay will be operating in the same space as the likes of Alipay and Touch 'n Go, as well as e-wallets issued by major banking institutions.

It is worth noting that Grab recently secured a US$1 billion (RM4.02 billion) investment from Japan's Toyota Motor Corp, valuing the six-year old firm at over US$10 billion. Past investors have included SoftBank Group Corp, which has made significant investments in ride-hailing giants around the world.

Ooi shared that GrabPay’s main selling point over other digital payment players is its capacity to serve the daily needs of users within the same app, since it incorporates transportation and food delivery services.

“What we want to do is to ensure we drive more and more transactions to the GrabPay platform. That will allow us to then offer more services in the future,” she said.

Despite the proliferation of e-wallets, Ooi shared that GrabPay’s main challenge remains the conversion of cash-based users to cashless payment platforms, since some 80% of transactions in Malaysia are still conducted using cash, according to data from Bank Negara Malaysia.

She added that Grab observes a “very, very similar” trend in terms of its own transactions.

“I don't see the competition being another wallet at this point. Our wish is to move all the cash transactions to cashless ones, but it will take time. We do not [want to] disrupt our customer service, but what we will do is to incentivise, encourage or reward people to convert to cashless payments,” she said.

Following its official launch yesterday, GrabPay users can now make cashless payments via the Grab app at over 500 partner merchants in eight Malaysian cities, as well as transfer money directly to other GrabPay users.

The number of partner restaurants in Malaysia are expected to double in the coming months, Ooi said. GrabPay’s partners currently include Maybank, where customers will soon be able to use GrabPay Credits at Maybank’s nationwide network of QR-enabled merchants, and KLIA Express, where starting mid-July, commuters can use GrabPay credits to pay for their rides.

In Singapore, GrabPay has grown to accommodate over 4,000 merchants to date, six months after the product was launched with some 1,000 merchants on board.

Ooi said GrabPay is targeting to bring smaller “quality merchants” such as mom-and-pop shops and food and beverage establishments onboard, especially those that have yet to accept digital payments. It is also partnering with large scale chain stores such as Tealive that have a high daily transaction volume and cater to everyday needs.

Grab has seen over 100 million downloads of its app so far, and is also looking to hire another 1,000 engineers in the next 12 months, Ooi added.