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Monday 14 February 2011
PayPal zooming along in Singapore
Online payment facilitator PayPal has been on a roll in Singapore, growing its user base here 45 per cent year-on-year to 870,000 total accounts by the end of 2010.
The company’s payment volume in the Republic jumped 63% last year
By AMIT ROY CHOUDHURY 14 February 2011
Online payment facilitator PayPal has been on a roll in Singapore, growing its user base here 45 per cent year-on-year to 870,000 total accounts by the end of 2010.
Not only that, the company’s payment volume, originating out of Singapore, grew even faster: a 63 per cent increase in 2010. The domestic payments (that is, transactions within Singapore) grew the most, doubling last year over the previous year’s amount.
‘This is the clearest sign to us that our initiatives are working to grow the domestic e-commerce business in Singapore where local consumers are buying from local merchants using our services,’ PayPal’s Farhad Irani told BT.
Last year, PayPal signed a deal with DBS which allows the bank’s four million customers to debit their bank accounts to fund online purchases done through a PayPal account.
This tie-up went live in August and is PayPal’s first-ever bank partnership in the Asia Pacific region. This allows the bank’s customers to shop online with over eight million merchants worldwide in 190 markets and in 24 currencies.
PayPal established its international HQ in Singapore in March last year and announced that the company would double its presence in Asia, creating more than 1,000 new jobs with over 100 based in Singapore.
‘The team based in Singapore is responsible for driving PayPal’s business across Asia Pacific to consumers, merchants, developers, telcos, online firms and financial institutions to build up the e-commerce and m-commerce ecosystems in the region,’ said Mr. Irani, who is PayPal’s VP and GM for Asia Pacific.
He said 2010 was a landmark year for PayPal in Asia Pacific with a diverse range of innovative business models, strategic partnerships and investments across the region to boost the e-commerce market and online payment space to benefit the company’s 20 million regional users.
‘The company has been rapidly driving its growth and gaining momentum across the region by adding over four million users in the past year.’
Mr. Irani noted that the company doesn’t provide revenue breakdown by region. ‘However, we can tell you that Asia Pacific is the fastest-growing region for PayPal and a big source of our company’s growth.’
PayPal’s total payment volume in the region was nearly US$9 billion last year, an increase of 45 per cent year-on-year, while its cross-border payment volume in the region was nearly US$6 billion last year, an increase of 38 per cent.
This compared with the company’s total payment volume worldwide of nearly US$92 billion in 2010, an increase of 28 per cent year-on-year.
‘As you can see, the Asia Pacific region accounts for nearly 10 per cent of the company’s total transactions and is expanding over 1.5 times faster than the overall company.’
Mr. Irani noted that consumer confidence for online security is critical to the online shopping experience. ‘We believe the launch of our Buyer Protection policy enables Singaporeans to shop with greater peace of mind on millions of websites while providing small businesses in Singapore with a seal of trust to help boost their online sales.’
Last year, PayPal launched its regional Buyer Protection policy. This policy covers and protects all consumers in Asia Pacific, who use PayPal to buy items from over eight million online merchants worldwide, for eligible purchases if they do not receive an item they have purchased, or if they receive an eligible item that is significantly different from that described by the online retailer.
Talking about the growth in Singapore, Mr. Irani noted that the stronger Singapore dollar makes cross-border shopping much more attractive for Singaporeans.
‘In fact, the US is the No 1 online shopping destination for Singaporeans as six out of every 10 local PayPal transactions are used to purchase US products. That is why HopShopGo has been a big success in Singapore.’
HopShopGo is another initiative launched by PayPal last year together with comGateway, for consumers across the region.
According to Mr. Irani, HopShopGo is a one-stop online shopping site that enables consumers to conveniently shop at over 300,000 US online retailers with an integrated PayPal account.
‘Apart from taking care of consumers’ payment and shipping needs - typically the two biggest barriers for online and overseas shopping - consumers who shop at HopShopGo also get to enjoy PayPal’s Buyer Protection and special shipping fees,’ Mr. Irani said.
Looking at areas of growth, Mr. Irani noted that with increasing Internet and mobile penetration across the region, e-commerce and m-commerce are significant market opportunities while online payment is a critical enabler of these key business trends.
In fact, JPMorgan (in January 2010) saw retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel) in Asia Pacific, growing from US$156.9 billion in 2010 to US$251.30 billion in 2012, Mr. Irani said.
He added that for PayPal, the top three fastest-growing merchant sales countries are China, Australia and Japan, ‘highlighting growing acceptance of PayPal in the three largest e-commerce markets in Asia Pacific.
‘We have signed up over 600,000 new merchants across the region in the past year, which is around 1,700 new merchants a day.’
In this respect, the company has been working with merchants to launch mobile apps and m-commerce services that are powered by PayPal’s mobile payment platform.
‘M-commerce is a growing reality as Singaporeans love the convenience of shopping anytime, anywhere, combined with PayPal’s mobile check-out in just a few clicks.
‘Our mobile payment volume in Singapore grew 6.7 times to nearly US$1 million in 2010 and this demonstrates the explosive growth potential for m-commerce this year,’ Mr. Irani said.
2 comments:
PayPal zooming along in Singapore
The company’s payment volume in the Republic jumped 63% last year
By AMIT ROY CHOUDHURY
14 February 2011
Online payment facilitator PayPal has been on a roll in Singapore, growing its user base here 45 per cent year-on-year to 870,000 total accounts by the end of 2010.
Not only that, the company’s payment volume, originating out of Singapore, grew even faster: a 63 per cent increase in 2010. The domestic payments (that is, transactions within Singapore) grew the most, doubling last year over the previous year’s amount.
‘This is the clearest sign to us that our initiatives are working to grow the domestic e-commerce business in Singapore where local consumers are buying from local merchants using our services,’ PayPal’s Farhad Irani told BT.
Last year, PayPal signed a deal with DBS which allows the bank’s four million customers to debit their bank accounts to fund online purchases done through a PayPal account.
This tie-up went live in August and is PayPal’s first-ever bank partnership in the Asia Pacific region. This allows the bank’s customers to shop online with over eight million merchants worldwide in 190 markets and in 24 currencies.
PayPal established its international HQ in Singapore in March last year and announced that the company would double its presence in Asia, creating more than 1,000 new jobs with over 100 based in Singapore.
‘The team based in Singapore is responsible for driving PayPal’s business across Asia Pacific to consumers, merchants, developers, telcos, online firms and financial institutions to build up the e-commerce and m-commerce ecosystems in the region,’ said Mr. Irani, who is PayPal’s VP and GM for Asia Pacific.
He said 2010 was a landmark year for PayPal in Asia Pacific with a diverse range of innovative business models, strategic partnerships and investments across the region to boost the e-commerce market and online payment space to benefit the company’s 20 million regional users.
‘The company has been rapidly driving its growth and gaining momentum across the region by adding over four million users in the past year.’
Mr. Irani noted that the company doesn’t provide revenue breakdown by region. ‘However, we can tell you that Asia Pacific is the fastest-growing region for PayPal and a big source of our company’s growth.’
PayPal’s total payment volume in the region was nearly US$9 billion last year, an increase of 45 per cent year-on-year, while its cross-border payment volume in the region was nearly US$6 billion last year, an increase of 38 per cent.
This compared with the company’s total payment volume worldwide of nearly US$92 billion in 2010, an increase of 28 per cent year-on-year.
‘As you can see, the Asia Pacific region accounts for nearly 10 per cent of the company’s total transactions and is expanding over 1.5 times faster than the overall company.’
Mr. Irani noted that consumer confidence for online security is critical to the online shopping experience. ‘We believe the launch of our Buyer Protection policy enables Singaporeans to shop with greater peace of mind on millions of websites while providing small businesses in Singapore with a seal of trust to help boost their online sales.’
Last year, PayPal launched its regional Buyer Protection policy. This policy covers and protects all consumers in Asia Pacific, who use PayPal to buy items from over eight million online merchants worldwide, for eligible purchases if they do not receive an item they have purchased, or if they receive an eligible item that is significantly different from that described by the online retailer.
Talking about the growth in Singapore, Mr. Irani noted that the stronger Singapore dollar makes cross-border shopping much more attractive for Singaporeans.
‘In fact, the US is the No 1 online shopping destination for Singaporeans as six out of every 10 local PayPal transactions are used to purchase US products. That is why HopShopGo has been a big success in Singapore.’
HopShopGo is another initiative launched by PayPal last year together with comGateway, for consumers across the region.
According to Mr. Irani, HopShopGo is a one-stop online shopping site that enables consumers to conveniently shop at over 300,000 US online retailers with an integrated PayPal account.
‘Apart from taking care of consumers’ payment and shipping needs - typically the two biggest barriers for online and overseas shopping - consumers who shop at HopShopGo also get to enjoy PayPal’s Buyer Protection and special shipping fees,’ Mr. Irani said.
Looking at areas of growth, Mr. Irani noted that with increasing Internet and mobile penetration across the region, e-commerce and m-commerce are significant market opportunities while online payment is a critical enabler of these key business trends.
In fact, JPMorgan (in January 2010) saw retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel) in Asia Pacific, growing from US$156.9 billion in 2010 to US$251.30 billion in 2012, Mr. Irani said.
He added that for PayPal, the top three fastest-growing merchant sales countries are China, Australia and Japan, ‘highlighting growing acceptance of PayPal in the three largest e-commerce markets in Asia Pacific.
‘We have signed up over 600,000 new merchants across the region in the past year, which is around 1,700 new merchants a day.’
In this respect, the company has been working with merchants to launch mobile apps and m-commerce services that are powered by PayPal’s mobile payment platform.
‘M-commerce is a growing reality as Singaporeans love the convenience of shopping anytime, anywhere, combined with PayPal’s mobile check-out in just a few clicks.
‘Our mobile payment volume in Singapore grew 6.7 times to nearly US$1 million in 2010 and this demonstrates the explosive growth potential for m-commerce this year,’ Mr. Irani said.
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