GCash online shopping transactions hit P16 billion

CEBU, Philippines —  Mobile wallet GCash posted P16 billion transactions on popular online shopping portals during pandemic and enabled over 600,000 Filipinos opening up businesses on the internet.

“Aside from regular financial transactions such as money transfer and bills payments, we’ve noticed shifting behaviors on how money and digital money is being used, namely on entertainment, savings, donations, and online shopping,” said Martha Sazon, President and CEO of GCash.

In 2020, Filipinos spent over P16 billion on popular online shopping sites such as Lazada and Shopee.

Meanwhile, more than 600,000 merchants and social online sellers opened up shop during the pandemic with GCash as the primary mode of payment.

The outlook of fintech indeed is bright in the country, especially now that the new normal is here.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) last year, announced their Digital Transformation Roadmap, where the agency aims to shift at least 50 percent of retail payment transactions to digital, and to have at least 70 percent of Filipinos have their own e-wallet by 2023.

According to Sazon, GCash fully supports this endeavor, and is confident that it will be able to accelerate meeting this goal, as 1 in 3 Filipinos already have a GCash account.

Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt), which operates GCash, is part of the portfolio companies of 917Ventures, the largest corporate incubator in the Philippines wholly-owned by Globe Telecom Inc.

Over P1 trillion in transactions have passed through the GCash app during 2020, peaking at a P7.5 billion daily gross transaction value, and with more than six million transactions in a day.

The mobile wallet company also grew its users to 33 million, a 65 percent growth versus last year.

GCash is also revolutionizing the way Filipinos handle their money. As of November 2020, 3 million GSave accounts have been opened, demonstrating how banking behavior is shifting from traditional physical branch visits, to simply transferring to a digital savings account.

Lending is another example: Over P8 billion have been extended to more than 900,000 Filipinos in need of funds through the app’s GCredit service, disrupting existing processes for loans in the country.