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SingTel Rolls Out Enhanced Mobile Payment App As Competition Heats Up
A man using the Singtel Transit NFC SIM to pay for the MRT fare at the launch of the Singtel Transit NFC SIM and Singtel Dash on May 10, 2016.
May 11th, 2016 | 09:39 AM | 2339 views
SINGAPORE
With growing competition in the mobile payment market, Singtel yesterday announced enhancements to its app, Singtel Dash, such as the ability to send remittances overseas to countries such as India and China. Users can also top up the Singtel Dash account balance via any bank, from just Standard Chartered Bank previously.
Last month, tech giant Apple rolled out its Apple Pay service here in Singapore while Samsung Electronics is expected to follow suit by the second quarter this year. Analysts believe Singtel’s move is an attempt to get more people to use the app, two years after it was first launched.
Singtel declined to reveal the number of users for its mobile payment app.
Marketing experts that TODAY spoke to believe that it takes more than just new features to entice consumers to switch to the Singtel Dash app.
Dr Ernie Teo, a research fellow at the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics, felt that one of the problems faced by local mobile payment apps is the lack of continued usage of the product after it has been downloaded.
“This could be due to certain frictions users face when attempting to pay, such as … cashiers are not familiar with how to accept payment with the app or having to go through authentication such as the two-factor authentication (2FA),” he said.
Assistant professor of marketing Hannah Chang from the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at SMU believes the enhancements could be in response to the increased competition. “Another possibility is that mobile wallet market seems to be the future of payment method, yet there is no dominant player as of now.
“The mobile wallet market is still at a nascent stage. For any company in this market, the faster a company builds a sizeable consumer base, the more likely that they will capture the market,” she said. Dr Teo noted that Singtel may need to push the enhanced features “to the right consumers”. “They need to increase awareness of the promotions and I think the best way to do that would be through targeted and location-based promotions,” he said. ASYRAF KAMIL
Source:
courtesy of TODAY
by Asyraf Kamil
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