KUALA LUMPUR: iPay88 Sdn Bhd, an online payment gateway provider, expects online payment transactions and sales value to double this year on the back of higher smartphone adoption and rise of electronic wallets (e-wallets).

“The digital economy is rapidly taking off. Coupled with technological advancements, which have made mobile devices the key online shopping tool and bigger adoption of the e-wallet, we foresee online transactions and sales value to double or even triple this year,” its executive director Chan Kok Long told a press conference yesterday.

The growth forecast, Chan said, applies to both iPay88’s business and the e-commerce industry as a whole.

iPay88’s data showed that it recorded 38.2 million online transactions or RM3 billion in sales value in 2016, up 161% from 14.6 million online transactions with sales value of RM1.5 billion in 2015.

This places iPay88’s share of the domestic online payment market at 70%.

The total number of transactions generated by mobile commerce surged 148.9% to 9.3 million last year from 3.7 million in 2015. Online desktop shopping, meanwhile, showed a 29.7% rise to 7.6 million transactions in 2016 from 5.8 million transactions in 2015.

“Growth in Malaysian consumers making online purchases using mobile phones is encouraging. [Statistics] have proven that mobile commerce growth in 2016 was far outpacing [desktop] e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar,” said Chan.

With that, the company expects that this year, mobile app-based visits to the retail category would surpass mobile web visits, whereas desktop visits would decline in growth.

“Technological advancements are making mobile devices and gadgets smarter and more sophisticated. [The younger generations] are treating these items as necessities and with that, mobile transactions, as we see it, will be the way to go,” Chan added.

While he did not disclose the company’s revenue and profit, Chan noted that iPay88 began recognising a major income stream beginning in 2012 with what he dubbed as the “first wave of e-commerce” when consumers were more familiar with AirAsia Bhd’s e-ticketing system.

At the time, iPay88 recorded RM130 million in sales value from RM110 million in 2011.

The “second wave of e-commerce”, Chan said, started in 2013 where it saw sales value rise to RM480 million with the emergence of online marketplaces such as Groupon, Amazon and Lazada.

Among the 10 Asean countries, Malaysia is currently ranked second in iPay88’s system, behind Singapore and ahead of Indonesia, in terms of transaction volume.