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Study finds most Thais prefer digital payments
The Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study tracked payment habits, attitudes and explored emerging topics related to payments across Southeast Asia including Thailand. The study also found that four out of five Thai consumers (80 per cent) were interested in making payments with biometric authentication.
Suripong Tantiyanon, country manager for Visa Thailand, said: “Thai consumers are becoming tech savvy, quickly adopting digital behaviour in their daily lives. The results of our recent study reaffirms our observation. We are encouraged to see Thai consumers adopting digital financial services, which would lend a hand in building a strong foundation for the country’s digital economy.”
Based on the findings, four in five (81 per cent) are aware of the concept of digital banking –online or mobile services that allow users to access bank accounts, transfer money, pay bills etc without having to visit a bank or use cash.
The respondents cited convenience as their top motivation in adopting digital banking (61 per cent), followed by not having to wait in line at banks (60 per cent) and finding it to be a faster way of banking (57 per cent).
The top five services Thai consumers are looking to receive from digital banks are deposits and withdrawals (72 per cent), paying bills (70 per cent), transferring money to family and friends (69 per cent), payment at retail locations (67 per cent) and investments (58 per cent).
The study also gauged Thai consumers’ interest in the emerging technology of biometric payments and found that four out of five (80 per cent) Thai consumers are interested in this payment method. More specifically, those of Gen-Y (25-39 years old) exhibited higher interest than Gen-X (40-54 years old) in biometric authentication (85 per cent vs 76 per cent).
The top drivers of interest in biometric payments are speed and convenience (53 per cent), followed by the convenience of not having to carry card or cash (50 per cent) and security (48 per cent).
Additionally, respondents also cited paying by finger scan as their most preferred biometric payment method (80 per cent), whilst consumers also feel comfortable using retina scan to make payments while travelling overseas (52 per cent) or for education (42 per cent) and health & fitness (40 per cent).
The study was conducted by ENGINE insights on behalf of Visa in August last year in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Myanmar. Total sample size was 5,102, including 505 working adults in Thailand aged 18-65, with a minimum monthly income of Bt15,000.
Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30393904?utm_source=category&utm_medium=internal_referral