Mobile wallet YouTrip inks six-year partnership with Visa

Malaysia and the Philippines are next in its SEA expansion plans.

Singapore’s first multi-currency mobile wallet YouTrip has entered a six-year partnership with Visa as to accelerate its expansion into the rest of Southeast Asia, starting with Malaysia and the Philippines.

The mobile wallet, which has launched in Singapore and Thailand, is seeking to tap in the APAC region’s projected US$154m of outbound tourism expenditure in 2030.

YouTrip will be leveraging Visa's global network of 70 million merchant locations worldwide with the aim of enabling Southeast Asia travellers with access to cross border payment solutions such as wholesale exchange rates and no foreign currency transaction fees in over 150 currencies.

Amongst SEA markets, YouTrip named Malaysia and the Philippines as its next potential markets in the next six to 12 months. The two markets reportedly present a massive untapped potential with outbound travel expenditure expected to reach US$12.4bn and US$12.0bn from Malaysia and Philippines, respectively in 2021.

Malaysia and the Philippines are also reportedly two of the fastest-growing Southeast Asian countries in mobile payment adoption, from 17% to 40% and 14% to 45% respectively.

The partnership with Visa presents YouTrip the opportunity to bring its hyper localised, ‘Truly No Fees’ proposition to a growing group of digitally adept travellers, the press release stated.

Visa’s Consumer Payment Attitudes found that Southeast Asian consumers are demonstrating a strong preference for digital payments, with close to 70% expecting that their usage of cashless payment methods will increase over the next 12 months.

Over the pandemic, YouTrip said that it recorded a three-fold increase in quarterly transactions, compared to the same period last year. It has also reportedly amassed over 1 million downloads to date.