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 revealed that these companies have a combined total of 114.4 million unique downloads as of December 2022, representing 20 percent of the total downloads from business and finance categories across all devices and all platforms, Digido reported.
From December 2018 to December 2022, the total number of unique downloads among the e-wallets included in the study increased by 632 percent (+99 million), growing by 30.5 percent (+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) licenses or those operated in partnership with a company that has said EMI licenses.
The 58 million active user base is eight percent (-5 million) less compared to December 2021, but up 466 percent compared to December 2018. This figure is comparable to 72 percent of the population aged 15+, Digido said, citing United Nations 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 and slightly lower compared to 2020 (17) and 2019 (19).
Digido also estimated 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.
Users are considered active if they logged in an e-wallet application in the last 30 days ending 31 December 2022, the company said.
The company attributed the growth to various factors, including the population of the Philippines aged 15+ that is expected to be at some 85.4 million people by the end of 2025.
Despite the global recession, the current economy of the country is in its growth stage where the Gross Domestic Product is at +2.9 percent Q3/Q2 2022, reaching $413.2 billion.
Also, 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 percent, and the number of users by 18.6 percent.