Over 58 million active users in the Philippines spent a total of 4.4 million hours in using e-wallet applications in 2022, according to a new report from consumer credit service Digido.

Analysis of 14 companies operating in the Philippines that have applications inside the iOS App Store and/or Google Play, reveal that these companies have a combined total of 114.4 million unique downloads as of December 2022, representing 20% of the total downloads from business and finance categories across all devices and all platforms.

From December 2018 to December 2022, the total number of unique downloads among the e-wallets included in the study increased by 632% (+99 million), growing by 30.5% (+26.7 million) in 2022 alone.

E-wallets examined in this study are those owned or operated by companies possessing both EMI (electronic money issuer) and OPS (operator of payment system) licences or those operated in partnership with a company that has said EMI licences.

The 58 million active user base is 8% (-5 million) less compared to December 2021, but up 466% compared to December 2018. This figure is comparable to 72% of the population aged 15+, according to United Nations (UN) estimates.

On average, e-wallet users in 2022 visited at least one of the mobile apps in this study about 16 times per month, similar to 2021 (16) and slightly lower compared to 2020 (17) and 2019 (19). Digido also estimates that the total number of accounts of the 14 examined apps could reach 81 million people by 2025. The unique number of users could also reach 67.3 million people by 2025.

Growth is attributed to the following reasons: First, the population of the Philippines aged 15+, which, according to UN estimates, is expected to be at some 85.4 million people by the end of 2025. Second, despite the global recession, the current economy of the country is in its growth stage (GDP +2.9% Q3/Q2 2022, reaching $413.2 billion). Third, the global demand for electronic money is growing: according to Statista, from 2023 to 2025, the global volume of digital payments will grow by 42.6%, and the number of users by 18.6%.

 Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker