GrabPay Card is a Mastercard-branded payment card that's tied to the Southeast Asia- (SEA) based ride-hailing firm's GrabPay digital wallet, per a press release.

Estimated Southeast Asia Consumer Payments Gross Transaction Volume
Business Insider Intelligence

Consumers can first apply for and receive a digital card — which can be added to their Samsung Pay wallet so they can make offline payments with it, in addition to digital ones — and then request a numberless physical card as well. The digital card is now available in Singapore and will be rolled out in the Philippines in Q1 2020, before hitting other SEA countries in the first half of 2020.

Grab is highlighting the card's security and rewards opportunity as key features.

  • Because GrabPay Card's details are stored in the GrabPay app and the physical card is numberless, it may limit security risks. The numberless physical card may make it harder for the card's information to be stolen, and consumers can lock their card from the Grab app, potentially helping users react to any fraudulent activity. Considering some consumers are concerned about data security, it's possible that GrabPay Card's security measures will attract users.
  • The card can enable consumers to earn GrabRewards more widely. Cardholders can earn rewards points on all purchases that use the card. This includes spending on Grab's services and transactions with any of Mastercard's approximately 53 million merchants, greatly expanding consumers' opportunities to rack up rewards. Consumers who already use GrabRewards may jump at the opportunity to earn points on more purchases so they can accumulate points faster.

Grab is looking to use GrabPay Card to become a bigger player in SEA's surging payments industry. The region's consumer payments gross transaction volume (GTV) is projected to rise from $1.4 trillion in 2019 to $2.3 trillion by 2025, presenting a significant revenue opportunity for Grab.

But e-wallets are only expected to account for $114 billion in GTV in 2025, while overall digital payments, which includes e-wallets, cards, and more, are forecast to total $1.1 trillion in 2025. GrabPay Card could therefore help Grab secure more volume as the region's payments industry grows, as could other efforts like working with PPRO to enable platforms to integrate GrabPay into their e-commerce payment experiences.

This initiative by Grab is very reminiscent of Apple's Apple Card launch, as both firms are trying to leverage their existing user bases and similar features to find success in financial services. Apple is attempting to convert iPhone owners and Apple Pay users to use Apple Card since it's tied into those products, and now Grab is trying to take advantage of its 166 million app downloads to quickly build up a significant cardholder base.

Also, both Apple and Grab have introduced digital cards with companion physical cards that are numberless and are touting their security and rewards values. It remains to be seen if these initiatives will be successful, but other firms may debut their own cards in the near future in the hopes of using the payment method to increase their payment volume.

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