How many Internet users in Southeastern Asia use credit cards online

looking for reports/ study and, or statistics

[shaadi]

Now this one is going to be a tuff one to crack, and after spending two three days of research and searching; I am still nowhere close. What I am trying to find is how many Internet users in Southeastern Asia – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand make use of credit cards online.

If I have to setup an office in USA for an online business catering these regions, which way can I receive payments? Can an international payment gateway serve the purpose or do I have to setup offices in each of the country/ and local payment gateways?

Any reports/ study and, or statistics focused on this subject will be very helpful.

Thanks in Advance.

[takagi]

Online Shoppers
Indonesia [tnsofres.com]
6% of Internet Users

Malaysia [tnsofres.com]
1% of total population
3% of Internet Users
Online: 4,759,000

Philippines
??

Singapore [tnsofres.com]
5% of total population
9% of Internet Users
Online: 2,316,000

Thailand [tnsofres.com]
3% of Internet Users
Online: 11,224,000

(Online population according to www.etcnewmedia.com)

<added>
South, Southeast and East Asia Subregional Overview [webmasterworld.com]
Indonesia online: 400,000
Philippines online: 500,000
</added>

[Macro]

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but next to Nigeria this is the most risk prone area for credit card fraud.

I have family in Nigeria and I have family in SE Asia and they don't even bother to attempt using their genuine cards online purely because any sensible retailer turns down orders to ship goods to those locations for payment by card.

Choose customers in some other areas. Avoid taking card payments from SE Asia. That's my two cents worth anyway.

[shaadi]

takagi I am impressed, but still looking for the answer to the second question, thats is if I have to setup an office in USA for an online business catering these regions, which way can I receive payments? Can an international payment gateway serve the purpose or do I have to setup offices in each of the country/ and local payment gateways?

[takagi]

I'm afraid you better start a new thread in the Ecommerce [webmasterworld.com] forum. Maybe some members overthere can help you with that second question.

[valortrade]

Why forget the Greater China regions?

There are some providers there to cover worldwide online merchant service, including credit card processing, online payment service, etc.

[Toasted]

Like Macro said - a better question would be how many people in this region use their own credit cards online ;)

Indonesia especially is the source of a large part of cc fraud that online casinos deal with - most online casinos won't accept cc transations from this region any more... or if they do, they watch them like a hawk and limit the amount of exposure.

If you do need to deal with this region. I would suggest that you need to pay very close attention to verifying that the person giving you cc details is the true owner of the card. Easier said than done of course... if you can use companies like PayPal or Neteller though, they do a lot of that for you.

[Woz]

>Why forget the Greater China regions?

Of course Hong Kong and Taiwan have internationally recognized Credit Cards. However, unless things have changed dramatically since I was there last, Mainland China keeps a very tight reign on money crossing the border and so Credit Cards issued to the local populace are only valid within the country. Foreign Credit Cards also (usually) require additional ID (PassPort) to use them, even to pay the bill in a major restaurant catering to foreigners. This is probably a holdover from the days of two currencies, RMB for nationals and FEC for foreigners.

So I don't hold much hope for a mass market suddenly becoming online and spending up big for a while.

Having said that though, the infrastructure for cashless payments is advancing in China with EFTPOS becoming widely accepted and E-Ticketing now quite common for public transport within major cities.

So, the familiarity for spending Ecash is there, the only thing holding it back is the governments control on funds moving in and out of the country which, in reality, is not a bad thing at the moment. To suddenly open up the border to the free movement of money would decimate the economy in China overnight.

Onya
Woz

[Macro]

Woz, it's about SE Asia, not the far east, not China, and certainly not Japan.

Nigeria has a lot of money, there are some very rich people, the well off do have satellite internet access, and they have credit cards. Why isn't there a queue to start taking Nigerian credit cards?

It's risk vs potentially profitable business one can do. Protect yourself via a middle man handling the transactions and you could still be buying yourself a lot of problems via chargebacks, extra admin etc

shaadi, my advice still is: Steer Clear of all the countries you've listed, especially Indonesia and Thailand.

[shaadi]

If one want to be a global ecommerce company and start offices at countries (excluding English speaking nations) which use English as the main language to surf the Internet - Other than South East Asia, as we are already a market leader here ;-)

What I see from the current discussion regarding ecommerce marketplace, as a country:

Indonesia - Credit cards issues
Malaysia - Good
Singapore - Very Good
Philippines - Credit cards issues
Thailand - Credit cards issues

Therefore it is mandatory that one needs local offices in these countries - Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand, to receive payments.

Am I missing anything here?

[Macro]

shaadi,

Having local offices gives you the advantage of taking cash/cheques, and having customers turn up at your premises to make purchases. I don't know if it benefits you greatly as far as taking cards are concerned, assuming that you want to take them on a website rather than a physical shop.