SINGAPORE, 8 January 2021: Singapore-based YouTrip, a multi-currency mobile wallet, has announced a six-year partnership with Visa to accelerate expansion to the rest of Southeast Asia, starting with Malaysia and the Philippines.
Currently up and running in Singapore and Thailand, YouTrip has amassed over 1 million downloads to date. The announcement comes a year after YouTrip’s first regional expansion to Thailand in partnership with Kasikornbank, a Thai bank more than 13 million online banking customer.
The partnership with Visa should fuel YouTrip’s mission to expand the cross-border payment experience for in travellers in Southeast Asia. Before Covid-19 disrupted travel, forecasts suggested Asia Pacific would generate US$541million in outbound tourism expenditure by 2030.
Consumers in Southeast Asia are also demonstrating a strong preference for digital payments, with close to 70% expecting their use of cashless payment methods to increase over the next 12 months, according to Visa’s Consumer Payment Attitudes study.
Malaysia and the Philippines are two markets that present massive untapped potential with outbound travel expenditure expected to reach USD12.4 billion and USD12 from Malaysia and Philippines respectively in 2021.
Additionally, Malaysia and the Philippines are two of the fastest-growing Southeast Asian countries in mobile payment adoption, from 17% to 40% and 14% to 45% respectively.
It took two years to establish YouTrip in both Singapore and Thailand. The company is now counting on the partnership with Visa to dive into Malaysia and Philippines’ financial markets.
