MANILA, Philippines—GoTyme is the best-looking mobile banking app. We like it.
GoTyme transforms grocery stores into convenient banking hubs through its kiosks. Just two years after launching operations, GoTyme Bank has 3.4M users in the Philippines.
Remarkably, about 2/3 of these users were onboarded through GoTyme kiosks. This phygital (a blend of physical and digital) approach has proven to be effective in reaching and engaging customers.
At these kiosks, customers can perform various banking activities such as deposits, withdrawals, and account opening, all facilitated digitally but supported by human assistance.
The strategy addresses a significant need in the country. According to data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), 34M Filipinos remain unbanked despite the availability of technology and a ready population.
GoTyme kiosks provide one practical solution.
GCash versus Maya
Now we are on stats, let see more stats, this time of the two giant wallets in the Philippines, GCash and Maya, who are supported by the two biggest tech companies in China, Alibaba and Tencent, respectively.
As of May 2023, GCash had 81M users and serves 2.5M sellers and merchants across the Philippines. As of June 2022, Maya had reached 50M users.
Here are the latest running scores:
- Loan Disbursement:
- GCash has provided loans to over 4.5M borrowers, with a total disbursement of ₱118B (approximately $2.11B), more than doubling from ₱50B ($895M) in 2022.
- Maya Bank Inc. has disbursed at least ₱34B in loans to about 1M borrowers, aiming to break even this year and achieve profitability by 2025.
- Profitability:
- Maya is still working towards profitability, having reduced its losses to around ₱400M in the first quarter of 2024 from about ₱600M a year ago.
- GCash remitted ₱962M in earnings to its parent company Globe Telecom Inc. between January and March 2024.
- Wealth Management:
- GSave service on GCash now counts 9.5M users.
- GFunds, the investment platform, has attracted nearly 6M users.
- GCash insurance products include over 16M policies sold and 4M registrations for GInsure.
- GCash Visa Card:
- The recent introduction of the GCash Visa card in October 2023 has garnered 1M users, offering enhanced rates and payment convenience in over 200 countries and territories.
🌟 The Way with CoopPay 🚀💡
CoopPay is the new kid on the block.
CoopPay has a long way to go.
But CoopPay, OneCoopBank, OneCoopTech and bitcoin will inspire innovation and entrepreneurship in the cooperative sector.
We have our own wallet (CoopPay), free from the messy commercial wallets that bombard you with ugly ads, we know we're on our way to banking with our own bank (OneCoopBank).
Tthen we can build systems thru people (OneCoopTech) who understand what we need as a sector, and we have sound money (bitcoin) accessible to each one without having to ask persmission from anyone else.
A permissionless system for which our own wallet (CoopPay) gives us a window to.
Now, imagine a world without these, it might as well be a world without you (as if, haha)
An example of such innovation and entrepreneurship taking shape is CoopShop™
🎉Shopee, pinoys and cooperatives 📲🚀
Shopee and TikTok changed ecommerce for Filipinos by smashing price discovery to a thousand broken pieces. For decades, Amazon largely ignored the Philippine market, and eBay grew stale. So now: better prices, better quality.
We believe this provides good lessons for coops. When to use Shopee, TikTok, or just use FB and when a cooperative should build its own ecommerce site and run its online operations.
So far, I have not seen a great ecommerce execution by a cooperative in the Philippines.
Maybe because our sector is dominated by credit cooperatives. And there may be no producers and agriculture cooperatives yet who think it’s worth the expense to build and run one.
But I believe it has to be done.
Somebody should do it, so not only can members buy from their own coops but coops buying from other coops, all over the Philippines. It’s usually referred to as ‘coop value chain’ and is part of the ‘coop circular economy.’
The e-commerce space in the country is projected to reach ₱968.9B by 2026.
At the moment, if you want coffee produced by a cooperative, you know there’s ‘something out there’ — you just can’t find it.
Abroad, I have my favorites, Frontiercoop.com and REI.com being two of them. Here, I see 1Coop Marketplace. Given Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative being the largest agri coop, maybe it will have one.
But it must be done.
Credit services is the dominant basic need here (that’s why you also see huge microfinance institutions like ASA Microfinance Institution).
Credit is GOOD. Credit for small entrepreneurship is BETTER. Coop members who have sari-saris sourcing produce and goods from their own coops is BEST.
When they grow, the consumer coop sector in the Philippines can grow.
When the consumer coop sector grows, the entire sector grows.
Not last and not least
I overheard the Management of One Coop Tech once plotting about Starlink. Here is a suggestion.
DISCLOSURE FOR BIAS: I named my son Elon.
Happy weekend!
Thank you.
/lam
About Lyman Manzanares
Founder of Law.net.ph and managing partner of Manzanares & Partners Law Offices, est. 2011. A lawyer based in Makati City, he is a Lifetime Member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), Makati City Chapter, and the Philippine Bar Association (PBA). After graduating from the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law in 2004, he has been involved in legal work in the government and private sectors, especially in the realm of commercial and cooperative law. In “A Case A Day,” he writes jurisprudence notes in criminal law, civil and family law, corporate law, and technology law. In the Middle Ages, Lyman pioneered #bitcoinforcooperatives, the fusion of what makes cooperatives special and what makes bitcoin revolutionary.
LET’S BUILD THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY Join a cooperative federation today via iCoop.ph and Healthcare.coop. #StudyBitcoin Experience the Lightning Payment Network for Cooperatives at Lightning.coop and the 6 Steps. Use CoopPay, the world’s first Lightning wallet for cooperatives, at the Coop BookShop at Buy.coop, The Co-operative Exchange. Register your .coop domain at Register.coop. Visit BitcoinIsland.ph. Make BitcoinTown.ph happen, but in your town. Sign up for secret updates. Read The New Co-operator. and see in one glance how the co-op universe is bending in space-time.
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SOURCES AND OTHER NOTES:
Asian Banking and Finance, Fintech News, Wikipedia: GCash, Maya
GCash is owned by Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.), a financial technology company. Mynt is a joint venture between Globe Telecom, the Ayala Corporation, and Ant Group, the financial affiliate of the Chinese multinational conglomerate Alibaba Group.
Maya, formerly known as PayMaya, is owned by Voyager Innovations, a technology company backed by PLDT Inc., a major telecommunications provider in the country. Voyager Innovations has also received significant foreign investment from KKR & Co. Inc., a global investment firm based in the United States, and Tencent Holdings Ltd., a Chinese multinational conglomerate known for its technology and entertainment ventures.
GoTyme is a joint venture between Tyme, a multi-country digital banking group, and members of the Gokongwei Group, including Robinsons Bank, Robinsons Land Corporation, and Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. This collaboration combines TymeBank’s secure banking platform, which serves over 5M customers in South Africa, with the Gokongwei Group’s extensive ecosystem across various industries.