Plingpay. Pay Pling! Fast and Cost Efficieint Cross Border Payment
Plingpay is now officially opening for corporate customers. Corporate clients now have the opportunity to get several percent better rates on every cross border transaction then anything in the market before with a streamlined customized PlingPay solution. This means a massive difference to your bottom line and cross border opportunity, with support for salaries, bill payments and more available on demand
Plingpay was part of a business delegation to Mexico, invited by the Swedish Embassy for an event discussing the future of Fintech, Sustained Development and cross border cooperation while also celebrating the Swedish National Day. Our CEO Martin Dalsenius had the honor to speak at the event and be part of a panel discussion together with representatives of Izettle, Verisec, and Sweblocks Academy on the opportunities of the Mexican and Latin American markets, held by El Pais. Really appreciate the opportunity and the hospitality of our sponsors at the Swedish Embassy and Fundec Fintech Hub!
Throughout it has been a great opportunity for us, our presence in Latin America at the moment limited to Chile and Brazil, to get a greater understanding of the Mexican market. In just two full days we had the opportunity to speak to regulators at the Financial Regulatory Authority, Fintech Hubs, representatives of Big Banks and of course this being arranged by Business Sweden and the Swedish Embassy, to meet with members of the diplomatic community and celebrate the National Day
From Plingpay´s perspective, the Mexican market, could serve as an important bridge for both an entry into the US, the US-Mexico trade being quite extensive and also that being the largest remittance corridor in the world. Mexico is also something of an anchor for many other Latin American countries and work as a bridge to them.
Plingpay also barely got the time and chance to set up a few meetings outside of the schedule, including another remittance company operating on the Blockchain between Peru and Chile, and the Bitcoin Exchange Izbit. In both cases we have high hopes to formalize this into formal partnership that would bolster Plingpay´s presence in Mexico and Latin America. Also of course a slightly less formal occasion to enjoy some good food and talk of Blockchain implementation in general is always nice.
A couple of things are really impressive about the Mexican regulatory frame work that makes it really interesting for market entry. The Fintech sandbox allows innovative startups to start growing and testing out solutions to clients, in a small scale, for a limited time, and under the supervision of the Regulatory Authorities, but without the heavy costs and processing required in the EU in general and Sweden in particular for even setting up your solution. Considering the difficulties, administrative costs and time Plingpay spent securing its own rights to operate and that many other Fintech startups face in Europe this could definitely be something to consider in Europe as well. Open Banking and giving API access to internal banking information has come very far in Mexico as well.
In terms of Fintech the digital economy is still growing. Cash remains and credit card solutions rare, but e-commerce solutions such as Izettle are on the rise. Though the regulatory situation on crypto is somewhat uncertain there are several major exchanges trading significant volumes around.
Plingpay was invited by the Government of Vietnam, the Swedish Embassy and Business Sweden as one of a very select list of mostly larger companies and very few startups to join the Swedish Business delegation and participate the 50 year celebrations of Sweden as the first Western country recognizing Vietnam. At the time standing up for Vietnam, in the middle of the American war, came at a considerable diplomatic price, but today this special relation opens many doors for companies like ours building bridges between countries.
This has been a golden opportunity for Plingpay to meet with leading members of industry, high ranking officials, our partners and users, as well as get a genuine feel for the pulse and workings of the fastest growing market in the ASEAN region.
We also had the honor of personally meeting their royal highnesses the Crown Princess Viktoria- and Prince Daniel of Sweden as well as the chairman of the communist party in Hanoi who welcomed the business delegation to a state dinner at the beautiful gardens of the Palace of Litterature in Hanoi.
Momentous change for the Plingpay platform´s growth plans
In the course of the trip to Vietnam we entered discussions with a really important global player about a joint project and discussions are continuing in Stockholm. Joining forces with them could entirely change the scope of our operations and our global ambitions, there are a lot of synergies. More information will be revealed when appropriate.
Showcasing Plingpay
Travelling Vietnam from Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City/ Saigon in the south we have met with business leaders, Fintech hubs, participated in conferences and been interviewed by national TV.
We also finally got the chance to meet in person both some of our customers and pictured below with our partner, the leading Bitcoin Exchange in Vietnam, VBTC, with founders Dominique and Phuong over some amazing giant Vietnamese pancakes and wearing casual clothes (finally).
One thing that we really take with us is the feeling of the country. Much of the Vietnam I had an opportunity to see during the trip, reminds of the China I knew as a student almost 20 years ago. The feeling of a country in rapid economic transition. With a 6% plus economic growth per year (fastest in ASEAN), new small and medium businesses popping up everywhere and an optimism for a better future as foreign businesses and production move in taking advantage of a business friendly environment with free trade agreements. Urbanization is rapid coupled with both the increasing living standards and the environmental problems that follow that when a large number of people can afford to replace their bikes with cars and motorbikes.
The present economic system is modelled after China´s approach to State Capitalism and the government´s hand remains strong even in the face of market reforms and many free trade agreements with foreign countries. Allthough Vietnam is considerably smaller then its large northern neighbor, its 100 million strong population is still sizable, and in the absence of a one child policy the population is quite young and birth rates remain high to the present day meaning that the problems with an aging population plaguing modern day Japan and which are at China´s horizon are very far away in Vietnam.
The e-commerce sector in Vietnam is somewhat underdeveloped. Though both new local companies like Momopay, Chinese giants like Alipay and Wechat and traditional Western card companies like Visa (there are only 6 million active Visa card in Vietnam including singlue usage digital ones) try, and that with the active help of banks who try to push for bank account ownership to go up from the present 30%, Vietnam remains strongly cash dependent. For savings it is even cash and physical gold and many digital payment platforms use cash as a deliverable.
Nonetheless the market is changing especially with the younger generation, and e-commerce is gaining ground. This transformative stage is a strong opportunity to grow with the domestic platforms as well and not least the distrtust of banks and traditional credit cards is something that could bode well for blockchain based solutions if there core functionalities could be explained to the general public.
Whether it is blockchain based or more traditional, the transformation of the Vietnamese Economy into electronic platforms is happening. Plingpay, which has been testing this market since 2017 is in an excellent position to take advantage of this shift and connecting it to the broader world.
