SINGAPORE: A recent study on perspectives on the country’s mobile apps and digital services has shown that a sizable number of Singaporeans are still using physical cards or tokens when taking public transport.
The study from last month, ”The Clicks and Shifts: Yahoo Singapore Digital Study,” which will be published on Apr 2, was commissioned by Yahoo Singapore and carried out by Milieu Insight.
Among the 1,500 individuals from the age of 18 and older who participated in the study, while 57 per cent of commuters use mobile apps or e-wallets when paying for public transport services, over two-fifths, or 43 per cent, do not.
Moreover, over three-quarters of the respondents (76 per cent) who use neither of the above digital methods still favor their physical cards, while “21 per cent mentioned their card had an automatic top-up function, and only 10 per cent preferred to pay cash,” Yahoo said.
The Yahoo Singapore study points out that despite digital payment methods being more convenient to use, some Singaporeans still have a marked preference for E-Z Link cards.
Having a designated card for commutes remains appealing for some, as this gives them a better overview of what they spend on using the public transport system.
Interestingly, the amount of household income is a factor in preference of mode of payment for public transport, with those coming from households with higher incomes tending to use a mobile app and/or e-wallet for public transport more.
Among households that take home more than S$6,000 monthly, nearly three-fifths (59 per cent) are users of e-wallets or mobile apps when making public transport payments. As for households that earn S$12,000 or more, this figure rises to 70 per cent.
On the other end of the scale, among households earning S$3,000 or less per month, only two-fifths (40 per cent) use digital payment methods for their fares. Among them, over four-fifths (82 per cent) “also heavily favoured physical cards or tokens,” Yahoo added.
Older Singaporeans tend to use physical cards or tokens because of “deeply ingrained behavioural experiences,” Yahoo quotes Associate Professor Raymond Ong, from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS), as saying.
“They are well-versed with perhaps at least knowing what the internet is and what mobile apps are, but they still prefer the token or physical card. The main reason is they are so used to it, that it is quite difficult for them to change behaviour. It is more like a behavioural preference than the convenience of a mobile app.” /TISG
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