vcash was a

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

digital wallet A digital wallet, also known as an e-wallet, is an electronic device, online service, or software program that allows one party to make electronic transactions with another party bartering digital currency units for goods and services. This can ...

and

online payment An e-commerce payment system (or an electronic payment system) facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for offline transfer, also known as a subcomponent of electronic data interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become incre ...

platform established in

Shah Alam Shah Alam () is a city and the state capital of Selangor, Malaysia and situated within the Petaling District and a small portion of the neighbouring Klang District. Shah Alam replaced Kuala Lumpur as the capital city of the state of Selangor in ...

in November 2017, by

Digi Telecommunications Digi Telecommunications or Digi.Com Berhad ( d.b.a. digi; ), is a mobile service provider in Malaysia. Its largest shareholder was Telenor ASA of Norway with 49%. On 24 May 1995, Digi became the first telco in Malaysia to launch and operate a f ...

, a subsidiary of

Telenor Group Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide, ...

. vcash allowed users to make payments in local stores via a

QR code A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...

, pay bills, top-up

prepaid mobile phones A prepaid mobile device, also known as a, pay-as-you-go (PAYG), pay-as-you-talk, pay and go, go-phone, prepay or burner phone, is a mobile device such as a phone for which credit is purchased in advance of service use. The purchased credit is ...

, and do P2P transfers. Despite being a Digi product, user registration and usage of this service was opened to both Digi and non-Digi customers. Its competitors were GrabPay,

Touch 'n Go eWallet Touch 'n Go eWallet is a Malaysian digital wallet and online payment platform, established in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in July 2017 as a joint venture between Touch 'n Go and Ant Financial. It allows users to make payments at over 280,000 merchant ...

, and Axiata's Boost. On 1 November 2019, Digi announced they were discontinuing vcash on 30 November 2019, two years after its launch, which were attributed to stiff competition from competitors that provide rewards to their users to retain customers in their services.

History

launched vcash on 10 November 2017 in collaboration with Valyou Sdn Bhd, an

e-cash Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital cu ...

issuing company authorized by the

Central Bank of Malaysia The Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM; ms, Bank Negara Malaysia) is the Malaysian central bank. Established on 26 January 1959 as the Central Bank of Malaya (''Bank Negara Tanah Melayu''), its main purpose is to issue currency, act as banker and ad ...

. It was one of the first e-wallets in Malaysia. Despite being a Digi product, user registration and usage of this service was opened to both Digi and non-Digi customers. At that time of its launch, vcash had 500 touch points and 80 merchants nationwide that accepted vcash payments, and had plans to expand their services to more than 2000 merchants by the end of 2017. Digi claimed their

transaction fee A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for rights or services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup. Traditionally, professionals in the United Kingdom (and previously the Republic of Ireland) receive a fee in contra ...

rate was at 0.8%, much lower compared to competing e-wallet services in Malaysia at the time. On 6 August 2018, Digi partnered with

AmBank AmBank Group comprises AMMB Holdings Berhad (AMBANK 1015) is one of the largest banking groups in Malaysia whose core businesses are retail banking, wholesale banking, Islamic banking, and life and general insurance. The Group trades under a ...

to enable merchants with AmBank

point-of-sale terminal A payment terminal, also known as a point of sale (POS) terminal, credit card terminal, EFTPOS terminal (or by the older term as PDQ terminal which stands for "Process Data Quickly"), is a device which interfaces with payment cards to make electro ...

s to accept vcash.

Services

vcash was used on smartphones using their vcash app. It utilized

technology as the payment method for local in-store payments. However, unlike competing services where users were required to show a random QR code generated on their app to be scanned by the merchant, vcash provided a QR code on their app in the store which could be scanned to make a payment. vcash also provided features such as utility bill payment, P2P transfer and

prepaid mobile phone A prepaid mobile device, also known as a, pay-as-you-go (PAYG), pay-as-you-talk, pay and go, go-phone, prepay or burner phone, is a mobile device such as a phone for which credit is purchased in advance of service use. The purchased credit is ...

top-ups. vcash also allowed online check-out on merchant and e-commerce websites whose payment systems were powered by iPay88 or MOLPay online payment gateway networks. Users could deposit cash into their vcash account in Digi stores or with

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), ...

debit cards A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The term ''plastic card'' includes the above and as an identity document. These are similar to a credit card, but unl ...

via FPX or JomPAY online gateway services. Users could transfer cash from their vcash account to their

Maybank Malayan Banking Berhad (doing business as Maybank) is a Malaysian universal bank, with key operating "home markets" of Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. According to the 2020 Brand Finance report, Maybank is Malaysia's most valuable bank b ...

account or collect their cash at a Digi store with payment of a minimum fee.

Closure

On 1 November 2019, Digi announced it would discontinue the operation and development of vcash on 30 November 2019, two years after its introduction. It became one of the first

e-wallet A digital wallet, also known as an e-wallet, is an electronic device, online service, or software program that allows one party to make electronic transactions with another party bartering digital currency units for goods and services. This can ...

services in Malaysia to close. Its users were able to ask for a refund of any balance remaining in their account. The closure of vcash was attributed to stiff competition from competing e-wallet services with greater

venture capital financing Venture capital financing is a type of funding by venture capital. It is private equity capital that can be provided at various stages or funding rounds. Common funding rounds include early-stage seed funding in high-potential, growth companies ( ...

than vcash. vcash had been experiencing a decline in the number of active users on a quarterly basis. When contacted by RinggitPlus regarding the closure, Digi stated closing down vcash was simply the result of a change in business strategy. Two days after the closure of vcash, Praveen Rajan, CDO of Digi, said the e-wallet market in Malaysia was too competitive because each competing service provided rewards or a cashback program or other subsidies to their users to retain their customers in their services. He stated these tactics were used as their main

value proposition In marketing, a company’s value proposition is the full mix of benefits or economic value which it promises to deliver to the current and future customers (i.e., a market segment) who will buy their products and/or services. It is part of a co ...

Reception

Market share

Data from App Annie and iPrice ranked vcash fifth in the top five e-wallet applications in Malaysia by monthly active users in the first quarter of 2018 before disappearing from the top five in the second quarter onward. Since its release, vcash ranked fifth in the top five e-wallet applications in Malaysia by total app downloads in the fourth quarter of 2017. It later jumped to third place in this category in the first quarter of 2018, only to fall to fifth place in the second quarter of 2018 before disappearing from the top five in third quarter of 2018.

Merchant response

Some merchants including

Hainanese Hainanese (Hainan Romanised: ', Hainanese Pinyin: ',), also known as Qióngwén, Heng2 vun2 () or Qióngyǔ, Heng2 yi2 (), is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan and Overseas Chinese su ...

restaurant Yut Kee Coffee Shop and

juice bar Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such as ...

Life Juice, who were early adopters of vcash viewed the service positively. Merchants praised the low transaction fee rate, noting the adoption of e-wallet services led to shorter

queueing Queue areas are places in which people queue (first-come, first-served) for goods or services. Such a group of people is known as a ''queue'' (British usage) or ''line'' (American usage), and the people are said to be waiting or standing ''in ...

times, improved the customer service experience at reduced costs, and allowed for better understanding of customers' behavior using the services'

analytical tool Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separati ...

Support from government

The Malaysian

Ministry of Youth and Sports A Ministry of Sports or Ministry of Youth and Sports is a kind of government ministry found in certain countries with responsibility for the regulation of sports, particularly those participated in by young people. The Ministry of Youth and Spo ...

make vcash a preferred cashless payment platform at their headquarters,

restaurants A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearanc ...

, and

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

in February 2018.

Khairy Jamaluddin Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar ( Jawi: ; born 10 January 1976) is a Malaysian politician. He most recently served as Minister of Health in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob from August 2021 t ...

, the minister at the time, said the adoption of e-wallet as a payment system allowed Malaysia to move towards the goal of becoming a cashless nation.

References

External links

* {{Mobile payments 2017 establishments in Malaysia 2019 disestablishments in Malaysia Defunct mobile payments Telenor Defunct Malaysian brands Internet properties established in 2017 Internet properties disestablished in 2019