More than two decades after its launch as SmartMoney, the pioneering financial technology (fintech) has evolved into Maya, the all-in-one money platform for digital payment and digital banking, spending several years in between as PayMaya.
The fintech’s current form as Maya signals the full and comprehensive development of what was once more of a novelty rather than the convenience that it has since become.
Standing out in crowd
Over the years, through its mobile phone application, Maya has become for consumers and enterprises, including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), a leading payment processing system, widest on-ground MSME agent network, and fastest-growing digital bank.
Its unique integrated payment and digital bank capabilities set it apart from other e-wallet services and banking players.
And, despite the crowded field that the e-wallet payment service has become, Maya will always stand out. Unknown to many, Maya, or SmartMoney as it was initially known, “was first in the world” and “ahead of its time” when it was launched in 2000.
Orlando “Doy” Vea, president and chief executive officer of Voyager Innovations and cofounder of Smart, points to the declaration of the 2001 Mobile World Congress calling SmartMoney “the first mobile wallet in the world” as an affirmation of this feat.
By now, especially amid the pandemic, Filipinos use e-wallets, like Maya, almost as naturally and casually as they use cash. It is used for payment of government fees, the distribution of relief aid during calamities, for a convenient and safe way to pay for purchases.
Exact amount, less worry
Roald Casildo, a sari-sari store owner, is a Maya Center agent who accepts contactless payments via the QR code and bank transfer. “The main advantage of being able to accept payments through QR is we do not have to worry about having the exact change for payments. With QR, customers pay the exact amount.”
Maya, whose shareholders include the telecommunications giant PLDT, is the first fintech company in the Philippines to adopt the QR PH national standard.
One of the earliest users of QR was the suki fishball vendor of Voyager employees, Rodrigo Caadan. At first, he says, other people thought his QR code was a joke. But they soon learned how to use it to the mutual convenience of Caadan and his customers.
Casildo adds that digital payment allows them to accept orders for delivery since payment can be made through bank or e-wallet transfer and QR. He earns extra by accepting bills payment, providing a remittance service and selling mobile phone loads.
BSP, DILG tie-up
Chef Ed Bugia, owner of Mimi & Bros Restaurant, managed to meet his customers’ needs during the lockdown by using the Maya QR in physical and online stores.
“Almost all of our customers now pay cashless. Our shops are online and, for the safety of our team, we prefer (it that way),” says Tippy Go, Multimedia artist and business owner.
Recently, Maya supported the rollout of the Paleng-QR Ph digital payments initiative of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipipinas and Department of the Interior and Local Government. The projects aims to digitalize transactions at the community level, starting with public markets and local transportation.
Maya provided market vendors and public utility vehicle drivers in Baguio City their own Maya QRs for safer, more convenient payments. Pasalubong stall owner Julie Pakilan at the Baguio Public Market says they adopted QR because, after the pandemic, customers preferred to go cashless so they would not have to handle money.
Oxfam partner
It has also partnered with aid organizations like Oxfam to deliver cash assistance for victims of various natural disasters. Through the B-READY program, digital cash transfers are disbursed straight to the Maya accounts of identified beneficiaries even before a typhoon strikes enabling them to prepare for the calamity.
Government offices in charge of providing aid have also partnered with Maya on numerous occasions to distribute assistance, including during the Covid-19 pandemic. Other agencies are also relying on Maya for the seamless and hassle-free collection of payments, fees, dues, fines and other things.
According to Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual, “Maya has helped shape and actualize the country’s e-commerce roadmap” and it is crucial in his department’s transition to e-government. INQ
