According to PayPal consumer research1 , 43 per cent of consumers in the Asia Pacific identify security as the key-motivation factor when they choose a payment method, while 38 per cent of shoppers opt for convenience.

The nation’s upward trend in e-commerce brings with it a rise in “invisible” payments. These take traditional payment methods such as cash, debit and credit cards, and card readers out of the equation and replace them with digital wallets.

This development is tied to how smartphones are revolutionising how Thais experience the world around them, by changing the way they work, live and play. Thailand has a highly digitised, mobile-first population with a rapidly growing base of smartphone users2.

These devices have changed the way Thais shop and pay, and in the process accelerated the adoption of invisible payments by increasing access to online and mobile commerce.

Examples of invisible payments have already been incorporated into commonly used services and products. From ride-sharing with Grab, food delivery services like FoodPanda, bill payments using LINE Pay, to Buy Now buttons hosted by online retailers, merchants are removing friction from the payment process. They enable users to purchase things they want within the platform they’re on, with no interruption to their experiences.

Thanks to invisible payments, new payment alternatives will help to reduce the friction that customers have long encountered when transacting — whether it is waiting in a queue, fumbling to find the right card or manually entering payment information on point-of-sale (POS) machines.

With the emergence of mobile commerce and social commerce, Thais are looking for simple, fast, and secure payment solutions that can adapt to these platforms. With Thailand taking the lead globally for the longest time spent on the Internet (approximately nine hours, 34 minutes per day3 by one study), innovation that improves payment processes in the new lifestyle channels will be critical to build better consumer experiences.

Reducing friction to create invisible payments is a top priority for payment innovation. For example, PayPal.Me for Business, which is a personalised link that allows for swift and secure transactions compatible with social media platforms, shows PayPal’s customer-centric approach to innovation. It also shortens the cycle between discovery and purchase, and creates a convenient and seamless buying experience for consumers.

The Bank of Thailand, along with commercial and state-owned banks, has provided financial infrastructure support to many types of digital payments. This also includes third parties such as retailers, shopping malls, restaurants and online merchants who will need to strengthen their e-payment acceptance capability to accommodate the development of future innovations.

What’s next?

In the next few years, the challenge for Thailand is to make financial services more accessible to the general public. Right now, the growth in invisible payments is being fuelled by the country’s e-commerce boom.

When these transaction methods become available for SMEs and more consumers, it will be a huge leap towards “democratising” financial services.

This cashless revolution can now be seen in parts of China and India.

Beyond this, the future of payments will be largely shaped by technologies:

Artificial intelligence (AI): AI and machine learning are being explored in the fintech industry to deliver richer, data-driven insights that allow businesses to focus on delivering a highly personalised purchase experience;

Virtual Reality (VR): Payment platforms are already being used inside virtual reality environments. Companies are exploring how VR technology can seamlessly let us explore and shop – and also pay – through VR technology with simple gestures;

Blockchain: Blockchain technology will extend beyond the current use in financial services by allowing for data related to the source, identity, credentials and digital rights to be securely stored with distributed ledgers in many different industries from aerospace to retail; and

Biometrics: Voice recognition, fingerprint scanners and facial identification biometric identifiers are rapidly being adopted into payment technology.

For now, invisible payments are enabling transactions to take place in the background as payment providers and merchants prioritise experience and find more ways to reduce barriers to purchase. The payments industry will continue to be disrupted by consumer demand for ease and convenience.

People don’t engage in a transaction for the joy of the payment experience. People pay to experience the joy and the value inherent in the things that they want and need.

Technological advancements will provide the tools the industry needs to respond to this ever-evolving demand.

Contributed by NAGESH DEVATA, general manager for cross-border trade/Southeast Asia, PayPal.

1 PayPal Cross-Border Consumer Research 2018 – PayPal conducted a global survey with approximately 34,000 consumers from 31 [countries] to examine how people shop online and across borders.

2  http://www.weconnectthailand.com/news/thailands-smartphone-demand-continues/

3 WeAreSocial 2018

“Wealth is growing around the Asia Pacific region. There is no difference in Myanmar. As a country that has just opened up its economy, there are much opportunities for banks to provide better services. So, we decided to create a wealth banking platform,” said Gary Voon, executive vice president and head of consumer banking at MAB.

In this respect, the bank introduced MAB Gold wealth banking, an important pillar of consumer banking offering a comprehensive suite of privileges to its customers. Catering to individuals with a minimum fixed deposit of 300 million kyats (Bt6.3 million), the new service offers members a full range of services, exclusive rewards, relationship managers, and a uniquely designed Visa card. MAB seeks to double the volume of its premium members within one year, he said.

Customers of the high-end deposit segment are offered unparallel services, ranging from premium dining experience, wealth banking centres, dedicated relationship managers, MAB’s Fly for Free Miles programme, free access to Pan Pacific Lounge in Yangon and Hilton Hotel Mandalay, free access to Mingalar Sky Airport lounge, complimentary golf green fees, and their own travel concierge managers. Additionally, they can participate in a draw for a first-class condominium unit.

“We are pleased to take wealth banking to a new level of sophistication and personalisation in Myanmar. We are the first in the market to offer such a platform to meet the demand of our well-heeled customers and their financial needs with a wide range of deposit tenors that come with privileges,” said Voon.

He said the bank’s relationship managers are specially trained to assist our customers in everyday banking services as well as more complex banking transactions and decision-making.

Plans ahead

According to Voon, 35 per cent of the bank’s total deposit comes from affluent customers. MAB is now trying to gather more deposits and grow its customer base in different areas, with an vision to become one of the top 3 banks in Myanmar.

“We are providing better services to our existing customers while seeking new clients. Driven by extensive investment in technology and human resources, our platform is now ready to serve more customers,” he said.

Voon said many products will be launched this year. With the opening of the insurance sector, the bank has planned to offer its customers new and more sophisticated products.

“For our credit card system, we will be launching a loyalty reward programme soon. We are targeting long-term deposits, basically to meet our asset liability and enable the bank to extend more long term loans,” he said.

Voon said the bank would continue to cooperate with international digital payment services including Visa and MasterCard.

“As we are focusing on retail banking, we have a good relationship with widely-accepted cards and plans are in the pipeline for the bank to issue cards of both brands [Visa and MasterCard],” he said.

According to Voon, the bank closely monitors market conditions in order to sustain growth amid market competition.

“The banking sector is evolving very well. Currently, all the banks are trying to provide additional services to their customers. We expect the sector to grow in line with Myanmar’s economy,” he said.

Kyaw Ni Khin, chief business office at MAB, said the bank’s customers would be able to strike a |balance between their work and |life with the bank’s improved services.

“By taking care of our customers with our dedicated services, they will be able to focus on social and business matters,” he said.

He also warned of “losing the meaning of life” if people fail to systematically manage their work and life.

“In the 21st century, the important thing in a person’s life is not just livelihood. Lifestyle is equally important. Families, life and businesses cannot be separated anymore as in the past.

These things all combine to form one’s lifestyle. Nowadays, we can see that technologies and the environment we live in are reinforcing a work-life balance,” he said.

Against this backdrop, the country’s growth in IT for the coming year will be due to two main factors – the international trade war and the national elections.

Vatsun Thirapatarapong, managing director of Cisco Thailand and Indochina, said that three most popular technology trends in the Kingdom will be AI and machine learning, followed by cybersecurity and the multi-cloud.

In the following year, around 85 per cent of software created will have AI capabilities, with the banking and financial sectors using AI to support and improve their productivity, as well as services such as mobile payment, mobile banking and the invisible bank. AI and ML will be used to develop new products and services to support the demands of customers in the digital era.

Meanwhile, cybersecurity will able to protect businesses and their customers from threats that would otherwise cause huge damages. As result, cybersecurity will create satisfaction and confidence among customers.

As well, the multi-cloud will aid businesses as they invest in new technology and are able to apply new and advance technologies to support their operations more cost-effectively and affordably through higher productivity.

Vatsun noted that the overall IT market in Thailand is enjoying continuing growth. The two main factors now driving that market growth are the US-China trade war and the national elections.

As result, politics will play an important role in supporting the government’s IT policy, such as the Thailand 4.0 scheme and smart city projects, which could drive the IT market as a whole.

Cisco this year will focus its business on the financial, manufacturing, public and education sectors, in addition to expanding its marketing channels to support market demand.

The firm is eyeing cybersecurity, Big Data and analytics, and automation – digital technologies that will see crucial opportunities and growth in the near future.

The firm expects that by 2020 around 75 per cent of businesses will be digital or have their digital business transformation under way. Only around 30 per cent of these will be successful, in part due to the lack of specialised talent and technical expertise. Some 78 per cent of businesses have not yet established the capability to manage a transformation process across different parts of the organisation.

Meanwhile, digital transformation will have a major impact across five industries leading up to 2024 -– manufacturing, financial services, retail, service provision and healthcare.

“I think that businesses will adopt new technologies to support their businesses. For example, cybersecurity on the cloud will help to protect cyber threats. We also expect double-digit growth in areas of the cloud, and embrace full-stack cybersecurity. Meanwhile, we try to provide innovation platforms such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), system analytics, collaboration and smart city platforms to support market demand,” Vatsun said.

Moreover, one study found that that despite the high confidence and awareness of technologies shaping business’s digital future, adoption rates are relatively low across the region.

Among the respondents in Asean, only 60 per cent have started to adopt the cloud, 59 per cent are adopting cybersecurity solutions, 55 per cent Big Data and analytics as well as 48 per cent automation, according to the study, Technology Perspective into Asia-Pacific’s Readiness for Digital Transformation.

Vatsun said that the firm expects this year to generate double-digit revenue growth.

Entertainment industry overhaul

Kla Tangsuwan, CEO of Wisesight, said that the technology trends now impacting the IT market are streaming technology, social media analytics, e-commerce and e-payments. Streaming technology, such as video streaming, will disrupt the entertainment industry since network, and infrastructure in the country has ensured cost affordability. This means customers will greatly increase their consumption of streaming content this year.

Moreover, e-commerce and e-payment platforms will impact businesses to a much greater extent, as businesses, such as the food business, are convinced that they will make it easy for them to engage with their customers.

Disruptive technologies are creating a variety of new jobs in the new digital era, such as professional influencers, game casters, e-sport athletes, and social media analysts. Those new job categories create new opportunities for business.

Wisesight this year will focus its business on providing social media surveys and data analytics platforms to support business, enabling businesses to participate in “social hearing” from their customers, said Kla.

Business will invest money to purchase software to better analyse data, so that they will be able to tap feedback from customers, enabling them to take the next step and develop new products and services to support market demand.

Yunyong Muneemongkoltorn, director of Epson (Thailand), said that the firm sees the IT market this year as driven by international and domestic economies, the US-China trade war, Brexit, the domestic election and post-election politics.

Epson will also focus its business on projectors and printers.

“I think that in this year the printer market will decline. Meanwhile, the growth of the projector market will jump, due to increasing demands from customers,” Yunyong said.

The firm will also expand its business in the direction of Scara Robots to support industrial and educational sectors and small and medium-sized enterprises. The firm also offers inkjet printers to support all segments of the market, starting from home devices to the large enterprise market.

The study among a representative sample group of 500 respondents revealed interesting insights into modern-day consumers who live in the changing world and economic fluctuations.

It delved into four contextual topics that affect the health of Thais today – Health Definition, Reasons for Not Being Healthy, Treatment, and Health & Technology.

Being physically healthy is no longer enough today. Results from the new study revealed that the definition of being healthy has expanded from simply not being physically ill to encompass things such as mental health, sexual health, mindfulness and work-life balance.

Among Gen X and baby boomers, mental health is regarded as an integral part of “health” definition – more so than Gen Z and Millennials, whose immediate health association is “physical health” and “fitness”.

Good diet, including making choice of healthy food and paying attention to food label, is perceived as the most important factor for a healthy lifestyle and surprisingly higher than exercise.

For Thais, a key motivation to leading a healthy life is to maintain a positive self-image, which is related to staying in good shape and having no serious diseases, with 82 per cent of the respondents saying that it was important that they look good.

Meanwhile, 50 per cent of Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X are obsessed with keeping their bodies in good shape and staying fit. They often get anxious about their weight and about not being muscular enough.

Eighty-nine per cent of all respondents admitted that making healthy choices has already become a trend.

What do Thais think are key reasons for not being healthy?

Ninety per cent believe environmental issues could affect their health rather than blaming their personal behaviour. The government is also expected to step up and take care of the people.

Money or personal finance is another key factor leading to stress (58 per cent), similarly to the rest of other countries, such as Australia (52 per cent), China (42) and Indonesia (60).

This in turn directly affects their health and traps them in an endless cycle of making money to fix their health, starting with insufficient income to make ends meet, leading to mental stress and then physical and mental illnesses and the need for treatment that they have to pay for, and more rounds of exactly the same things.

Moreover, Gen X tends to have the most stress in all aspects of life.

When sick, Thais treat themselves with an over-the-counter pain, flu or cold reliever rather than prescription medication.

Millennials (66 per cent) and Gen X (73) often quickly treat themselves with a common painkiller, which are relatively higher percentages than in other generations.

They also take “natural” medicine as an option.

Another strong trend sees online solutions complementing offline advice for all ages: 46 per cent of baby boomers would visit clinic and research more about their symptoms online while Gen Z (30 per cent), Millennials (27) and Gen X (25) would look for advice from social media, and Gen Z (19) would prefer to chat with doctor online.

Buddhism also has a positive influence on our health, as evident from the findings that Thais have the highest rates of meditation and therapy in both the physical and emotional aspects.

Seventy-eight per cent prefer meditation, against global average of 51 per cent; 60 per cent choose spas against a 53 per cent global average; and 50 per cent visit therapists against 30 per cent average globally.

Today’s technology has strong potential in keeping people healthy, but education in what and how is needed, along with reassurance of data security.

More than half of the sample in this study do not currently use health applications to track their health, even in highly-developed countries such as Japan.

Among baby boomers in Thailand, 78 per cent do not use apps to track health.

The key reasons for not using app vary by age. For example, the lack of knowledge in what these apps do, and how, as well as trust in doctors over technology are the key reasons among older generations. Millennials (56 per cent), Gen X (47) and Gen Z (44) are the key potential user-groups of health applications.

Those who use apps, however, believe that if used correctly, the apps help them achieve goals according to their health definition. They use health apps to track their fitness, weight, heart rate and diet and/or daily nutrition.

Moreover, 87 per cent believe technology could help them be healthier than currently and 81 per cent prefer to track their health at home rather than visiting a doctor.

The “Well Economy” conditions of Thais in micro-segment level is a key index of the nation’s strength and stability. Physical and mental health of the people is a sum of the interrelation between degree of people’s well-being, the nation’s economic growth, gross domestic product and social conditions at macro level.

To build a “quality nation”, there’s a need for “quality people”, especially in the fast-changing, highly-competitive world of today’s time.

Therefore, staying abreast of health across physical, mental, sexual health as well as mindfulness and work-life balance is becoming a top agenda, calling for all sectors and every Thai individual to promote a healthier life before health issues develop into a prevalent cycle of “gone-broke, stressful and ill” people, which can ultimately affect the nation’s security at large.