Mobile finance apps soar in Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific is leading the way in adopting mobile finance apps, according to a new report.

The Mobile Finance Report 2019 outlines how “astronomical momentum” has seen the number of finance app downloads jump from 383 million in 2014 to reach a massive 1.8 billion in 2018.

The report, from mobile measurement company Adjust and mobile data and analytics platform App Annie, also found that growth has been fuelled by unbanked citizens in the Asia-Pacific region who have traditionally struggled to access banking services.

According to the data, Chinese users downloaded 6.8 finance apps per person on average, against 4 for South Korea and 2.6 for Indonesia.

A total of 143 million mobile money accounts were opened, most of which located in Southeast Asia and Africa, according to data from mobile trade body GSMA.

Super apps, such as China’s WeChat and Alipay, that combine social, retail, and finance services are another key component of mass adoption, the report states.

The trend only looks set to continue as more and more Asia-Pacific nations investigate launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Chinese officials have been keen to remain at the forefront of digital asset adoption and publicly announced their work on a CBDC earlier this year.

This week, Coin Rivet reported how four Chinese banking giants are competing to create the best version of a yuan CBDC in the first live pilot of the highly anticipated digital currency.

It will be trialled in Shenzhen in partnership with the Central Bank of China, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), and two other state-owned banks, according to Chinese local news outlet Caijing.