Product or feature: BNPL in Southeast Asia faces an identity crisis -

As prominent tech players like Shopee and Grab build their own BNPL solutions, being a BNPL feature provider is no fun. But being a product may be harder, as BNPL isn't regulated in SE Asia

Buy now pay later (BNPL) is being touted as the next big thing for fintech in Southeast Asia

But regulators are starting to scrutinise these players, with worries of consumer credit risk

Also, some tech partners have turned competitors, launching their own BNPL services

BNPL players will have to navigate these challenges while building something that consumers and merchants will stick around for

A new type of fintech, incubated by the Covid-19 pandemic, has been sending ripples across markets around the world. In Southeast Asia, it seems to be building into a wave.

Afterpay, an Australian ‘buy now, pay later’ or BNPL service provider that recently entered Singapore, has seen its share price rise more than 15X since March 2020 thanks to revenue gains. More recently, IOUpay—another Australia-listed stock—saw its price rocket 3.5X over the past week after it inked a deal with Malaysia’s EasyStore Commerce, a Shopify-like platform that enables more than 7,000 merchants 7,000 merchants Stockhead IOUpay ‘out of the blocks’ – opens huge Malaysian BNPL market with EasyStore partn Read more to sell online.

AUTHOR

Benjamin Cher

Based in Singapore, Ben covers news and stories from the hub of Southeast Asia. He covers the intersection of technology and business, and how it affects Singapore and Southeast Asia. Ben was previously a reporter at The Edge Singapore.

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