GrabPay can now be used at SM Cinemas
GRAB Philippines said its mobile wallet arm GrabPay can now be used to pay for tickets at SM Cinemas as part of its continued expansion in the country.
The technology start-up, which previously only allowed digital transactions through its ride-hailing and courier services, said it wants to grow the use cases for GrabPay in the country by forging more partnerships with merchants.
“What we’re doing, based from now until end of this year, is we look to enable 5,000 outlets with GrabPay,” Huey Ooi Tyng, GrabPay Managing Director for the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, said in a media briefing late Wednesday.
Aside from the QR payments at SM ticketing booths, the company said it will also allow users to transact through GrabPay when buying tickets from the SM Cinema website.
GrabPay entered a strategic partnership with SM Investments Corp. in November, from which Ms. Ooi said more use cases are expected to arise within the year such as QR payments in SM supermarkets and department stores.
Grab Philippines President Brian P. Cu said aside from SM, the company also intends to expand the use cases for GrabPay within Grab’s own services.
“Right now, the use case of GrabPay has been limited to transport and GrabExpress. With this, we’re expanding the use case. Soon we’ll be allowed to pay GrabPay with GrabFood, within the quarter,” he said.
GrabPay said it recorded a 130% growth in monthly active users since the first quarter of 2018, with an average 30% quarter-on-quarter growth.
Mr. Cu said the company’s target is to grow the base “by at least the same amount” by the end of the year, or another doubling in active users.
“GrabPay, as we see it, is a business that can support a lot of the other businesses (of Grab),” Mr. Cu said. “It’s not a major driver revenue for sure… What GrabPay does, instead of driving revenue, is it drives access to all the other services.”
The company is also eyeing to allow bills payment through GrabPay by the third quarter, and to allow users to shop with points by the fourth quarter. — Denise A. Valdez
