From Zero to 40 Million: The Rise of Digital Payments in Myanmar

Myanmar is in a boom. While seven years ago, financial services were largely unused, today many consumers use their smartphone to make payments. Over the course of only a few years, over 40 million Myanmar people have come online. From no banks to digital currencies, from no computers to smartphones, from no internet to 4G — everything in Myanmar is moving fast despite the relaxed atmosphere. The reason? No incumbency.

The fact that consumers are 4x more likely to have a smartphone (80% penetration rate) compared to a bank account (23% bank account penetration) has paved the way for mobile money to surpass traditional banking services. Wave Money for example, one of the leading mobile money operators, expects to move $4bn in 2019. That’s close to 5% of the country’s GDP ($69bn in 2017). And Wave Money is only one of many players.

Breaking down mobile money

Mobile money is a broad term used to describe a service in which the mobile phone is used to access financial services. This includes the ability to make payments to merchants or to peers (e.g. P2P), storing money digitally, and making digital payments online. Leading players in Myanmar support all three, leveraging two main advantages: apps and tellers.

Apps Apps, Baby

Unlike many emerging markets, Myanmar went straight to 4G enabled smartphones which enabled mobile money operators to build rich user experiences in standalone apps…