E-payments use in Singapore only scratching surface: PayPal

Survey shows 98% of Singaporeans own smartphones, but 90% still prefer cash as primary mode of payment

Michelle Quah

Published Tue, Aug 29, 2017 · 09:50 PM

Singapore

SMACK on the heels of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's call to transform Singapore into a Smart Nation is global online payments service provider PayPal's research showing just how much further Singapore needs to go to achieve that.

New research by the American company, released on Tuesday, showed that while Singapore may be one of the world's most digitally literate countries, the city-state's current usage of e-payments is only scratching the surface of what it could be.

PayPal's study, Digital Payments: Thinking beyond Transactions, surveyed 4,000 consumers and 1,400 merchants across seven markets in Asia, of which 500 consumers and 200 merchants were from Singapore[/1].

It found that, to achieve PM Lee's vision of a high-tech, advanced society running on cashless payments will involve the collaboration of both industry players and government regulators within the payment ecosystem, to further drive the adoption of digital payments and unlock the full potential of this new paym…