E-payment solution GCash breaches 50,000 partner merchant mark

Local e-payment solution, GCash, just hit a major milestone. Product operator Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.) announced that the first quarter of 2019 saw their flagship payment solution pass the 50,000 QR merchant mark.

The use of QR for mobile digital payments is very popular in various emerging and developed economies. In China, for example, mobile digital payments account for over half of the country’s total transaction volumes.

This tech is still in its nascent stages here in the Philippines, but is quickly picking up speed with Mynt’s aggressive partnership strategy.

“QR payments provide security and convenience to both merchants and their customers, said JM Aujero, vice president for merchant solutions. “Our thrust as a mobile wallet is to acquire as many merchant partners as possible, even micro-entrepreneurs such as taho vendors, to future-proof us from the expected boom in usage.”

“We want to be as pervasive as our partner Ant Financial in China. QR is the future of payments, and we are committed to lead in this arena here in the Philippines,” he said.

Mynt — a partnership between Globe Telecom, the Ayala Corporation, and Ant Financial — launched GCash in 2017, as part of its thrust towards providing innovative fintech solutions to consumers, merchants, and organizations.

The QR technology of GCash is far reaching, spanning from Luzon to Visayas and down to Mindanao, including popular tourist destination Boracay.

According to Mynt, QR payments are empowering micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), helping oft-overlooked entrepreneurs transition into the digital arena.

Aside from giving them access to millions of customers, the QR payments solution of GCash allows merchants to enjoy auto-sweeping of their daily transactions into their account, the firm said. It likewise provides a better performance evaluation of the business, as the system provides for QR transaction reports, which allows enterprises to study and analyze their transactions, in real time. Cash handling issues are also addressed through the QR payments system.

“Merchants and social sellers can leverage on the ubiquity of GCash in the Philippines, as well as benefit from this simple, cost-effective, and secure alternative to cash,” JM Aujero said. “Our aggressive stance in fighting for more QR-enabled merchants stems from the fact that everyday, more and more GCash users onboard the platform. Use cases for QR payments also continue to sprout.”

The GCash QR payments solution, he explained, is supportive of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ goal of reducing cash payments and increasing the share of non-cash transactions to 20 percent of the total volume by 2020.

“GCash is embarking on a battle against cash to capture more users this year, and the need to increase the number of merchants in the GCash platform only continues to be more pronounced,” he said.