FOMO Pay co-founder, Liu Xi, Louis, invited to speak on ‘It Matters: The Future of Us’
Produced by Lianhe Zaobao, <<时事讲堂之看见未来>> (It Matters: The Future of Us) is a weekly series discussing current affairs regarding Singapore’s future economy.
FOMO Pay co-founder, Liu Xi, Louis, was invited to speak on the third episode of <<时事讲堂之看见未来>> (It Matters: The Future of Us). He shared his insights on how digital technology can help businesses in Singapore, especially SMEs.
Other panelists on the show include Patrick Lim (Group Sales and Marketing Director for Ademco), Thomas Chua (President of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry) and Sim Ann (Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry & Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth).
The panel shared their personal experiences with technology in their everyday purchases and discussed about key issues surrounding the digital economy in Singapore.
The digital economy is a broad concept encompassing digital technology that spur innovation and increase convenience. Examples include mobile applications, virtual reality technology, The Internet of Things, big data and cloud computing. Such technology can also become a competitive advantage for businesses as they adapt to provide better service to customers and lower operation costs.
Liu Xi, Louis mentioned that as a nation, Singapore has to target two areas in order to best prepare for the digital economy. Firstly, Singapore needs to set up infrastructure that can meet the needs of the digital economy and support its development. In this aspect, Louis acknowledged that Singapore has already done well, as seen through the high smartphone penetration rate and widespread Internet access across the island.
Secondly, Singaporeans will have to change their mindsets in order to fully embrace the digital economy. This will take a longer time. For example, even though credit cards were invented in the 1950s, it took us 30 to 50 years to familiarize ourselves with using credit cards during our purchases. Similarly, it may take us 10 to 20 years to fully embrace emerging technology such as mobile payments.
Louis also gave an example of how a local durian seller experienced a tenfold increase in sales after bringing his business online via FOMO Pay in just a week. This shows that traditional brick-and-mortar businesses can also tap onto these emerging technologies to expand their businesses and reach out to customers whom they previously were unable to.
About FOMO Pay
FOMO Pay is the first authorized WeChat Pay & Baidu Wallet partner in Southeast Asia, and was selected as one of the TOP 100 Asian Companies by E27, TOP 100 Startups by Red Herring Asia, and Top 8 by DBS’ FInTech Accelerator Program.
FOMO Pay provides a one-stop solution for overseas merchants by facilitating payment collection from the China market, including Chinese tourists. This comprises of online/offline Chinese payment modes, such as WeChat Pay, Alipay and Union Pay.
FOMO Pay’s business solution serves clients from a wide range of industries, including the telecom, publishing, tourism and hospitality, F&B, education and retail industries.
Photo Credit: Lianhe Zaobao
