Go-Pay Wants To Strengthen Its Position In Indonesia Payments Market

Go-Pay, the digital payment unit of Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Go-Jek, plans to strengthen its position in the digital payments market as growth in Indonesia explodes.

During an appearance on CNBC‘s “Squawk Box Asia” this week, Go-Pay Chief Executive Aldi Haryopratomo said the company sees the real competition as moving people away from cash rather than going up against another digital payments player. “Once you have people moving away from cash, there [are] so many things you can do,” the executive said in the interview. He noted that Go-Pay is the leader in Indonesia in the eWallet industry currently. Its leadership position comes as the FinTech market is taking off in the country, which is home to Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. According to CNBC, the eWallet segment is the fastest growing part of FinTech in Indonesia. Redseer, a management consultancy, found that segment is forecast to grow to $25 billion in 2023 from $1.5 billion last year, a report covering the interview noted.

With the market opportunity growing, Go-Pay faces increased competition from FinTechs, including OVO, which has the backing of Grab, the Singapore ride-hailing company. OVO is among the biggest players in the digital payment market in the country, noted the report. State-owned enterprises have also entered the fray.

But the competition isn’t worrying the Go-Pay CEO. He told the news outlet he is “excited” about the competition, saying more players in the game creates more potential for partnerships. Go-Pay would also partner with a bank to drive adoption of digital payments in Indonesia, he said.

“When you’re a player that grows from a very small ride-hailing company to … become the number one [provider] of payments for Indonesia, obviously a lot of banks are going to pay attention,” Haryopratomo said. “The way that we partner with them is, we find areas where we believe we become a bridge for the bank.”