Mobile wallet usage surged 700% in May
The GCash mobile wallet saw usage balloon at the height of the enhanced community quarantine as Filipinos turned to digital payments while under lockdown.
GCash said in a statement that transactions during the month of May surged by 700 percent compared to the same period in 2019.
The company, led by the Ayala Group’s Globe Telecom and Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial, did not provide more detailed figures. But it noted a rise in online food deliveries, grocery services and money transfers amid new coronavirus pandemic.
“The pandemic has forced all of us to adopt digital solutions such as GCash to protect us from contracting the virus,” GCash president and CEO Martha Sazon said in the statement.
“The steady uptrend on transactions using GCash shows that Filipinos are now being more dependent on digital solutions,” she added.
GCash, which competes with the likes of PayMaya, has partnered with thousands of merchants.
It has also been tapped by the government to help distribute financial aid to families in need during the crisis. Aside from this, GCash is also processing the financial aid of the local governments of Makati, Quezon City and Pasig to disburse their own supplemental cash assistance to their residents. INQ
