In Asia-Pacific, this has meant that some emerging markets have accelerated their adoption of digital services; the growth that was projected to take years has only taken months.

One notable example of this is Indonesia. According to a recent survey, Indonesia’s e-commerce sector is expecting 50 percent year-on-year growth with its value set to reach US$35 billion in 2020, up from $23 billion in 2019. What’s more, 30 percent of those surveyed were new to online marketplaces and 40 percent intend to keep using e-commerce after the effects of the pandemic lessen.

With this upward trend has come a reliance on digital payments, and both public and private sectors have responded accordingly. Recently, the Indonesian central bank announced that all mobile payment providers were to replace QR codes with the standardised QRIS (Indonesian Standard QR code), providing a single integrated platform for all transactions made using QR codes across multiple e-wallet providers.

On the private sector front, LinkAja has launched an online shopping solution to overhaul traditional marketplaces throughout Jakarta by enabling users to pay for goods using an app with the products delivered straight to their door.

For e-commerce and digital payment providers, these examples are good indicators that the time is right to go after a share of this market. 

Indonesia possesses many of the key characteristics that are critical to a market’s adoption of digital payments. With a smartphone penetration rate of 60 percent, well above the region’s average of 51 percent according to PPRO E-Commerce and Digital Payments report, and having witnessed its middle class grow from 7% to 20% of the population over the last 15 years, it comes as no surprise that Indonesia’s internet economy has more than quadrupled in size since 2015.

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