SINGAPORE: As of Wednesday (Nov 1), actors Andie Chen and Kate Pang are no longer Mediacorp artistes. Their final day of contract was Oct 31.

The pair, who have been married for almost four years, made the announcement via their personal social media channels, saying it was time to move on to the next stage in their lives.

“I have always placed my growth as an artist as the top priority in every career decision I make. This means making unique and seemingly illogical career choices at times,” said Chen. “Setting up my own company will give me the freedom to pursue projects that I am passionate about and I believe this is the only way an artist can reach his full potential.”

Both Chen and Pang are leaving to focus on their YouTube channel Kandie Family, which features an assortment of videos of them and their two children, three-year-old son Aden and one-year-old daughter Avery. 

This new chapter however, Chen said, does not signify a definitive breakup with Mediacorp. In fact, both Chen and Pang are still currently working on projects with the broadcaster.

“The end of my contract is by no means an end to my relationship with Mediacorp,” he said. “We will be working together regularly in the future.

“I was attached to the company (for) most of my 10 years in acting. They have given me a start in my career, a channel to explore my passions and most importantly they played a big part in the formation of my family,” continued Chen. “For these reasons and more, I’ll forever be grateful, and I am happy to be moving on to the next stage of my career with their blessings.”

The 32-year-old first broke onto the scene when he won talent contest Star Search back in 2007. Over the last decade, he has acted in popular Mediacorp dramas such as The Little Nyonya (2008), Prosperity (2011) and The Journey trilogy series (2013-2015).  

The actor, who also landed a part in the TV drama Independent Heroes during a stint in Taiwan, said he looks forward to not only continuing as a performer but also moving behind the scenes as a producer and director.

Taiwanese Pang is an actress-host who has helmed major shows such as the Star Awards. The 34-year-old first came to Singapore in 2011.

“I initially thought this was only going to be a two-year performance study experience,” she said in a statement in Mandarin. “It turned out to be seven years.

“In this big (Mediacorp) family, I’ve made many great friendships and even established my own family,” she said. “In this journey of life, there have been many milestones. And now that I have a family and children, I’ll need a lot more space and time to realise all my original dreams.

“Thank you to the television station and bosses for all the support and opportunities,” she added. “I’m forever grateful that this has been my platform to develop and grow.”

Commenting on the couple’s decision, head of The Celebrity Agency Georgina Chang wished them success.

“Kate and Andie are an extremely talented couple,” she said. “We’ve enjoyed working with them and will continue to work with them on an ad hoc basis. They are true artistic souls and stay authentic to their beliefs and passion. I know they will continue to do very well as artistes.”

SINGAPORE: Mr Sahat Wahab’s nasi padang stall at Tiong Bahru Market is among the vast majority of its 80-plus stalls without a mobile payment option – this, despite a trial that concluded last year.

Only an estimated one in six offer that option at the food centre, whose history predates World War II.

Mr Sahat, for example, has his concerns. about mobile payments.

“If there’s a problem with the machine (at peak hours) … our customers would definitely run away,” he told the Channel NewsAsia programme Why It Matters. (Watch the episode here)

Hawker centres – with their more than 14,000 licensed hawkers across the island – are the battleground for a game of thrones happening now, among mobile wallet providers gunning to be the top payment platform on Singaporean consumers’ phones.

The likes of Visa, DBS Bank and Nets are among at least a dozen players in a race as they work on better electronic payment plans they hope to introduce to hawkers and the general public, for whom cash remains king.

Much is at stake, not only for the companies but also for the adoption of mobile payments as part of the Republic’s Smart Nation vision.

According to accounting firm Ernst and Young (EY), which collects data on mobile payment methods in 20 economies, targeting hawker centres is crucial here. It is one of the lessons from China’s move towards cashless transactions.

“The hawker centre is the last mile where, if we can get the hawkers and the consumers to adopt e-payment more readily, that would really drive up these transactions,” said Mr Liew Nam Soon, EY’s managing partner for financial services in Asean.

(Read: How WeChat helped spark China’s cashless revolution)

FROM QR CODES, TO A WHOLE ECOSYSTEM

The Chinese learning experience, he continued, “has been (that) the QR code is a cost-effective way to address high-volume, low-value transactions… It’s a cost-effective way to get the adoption up.”

QR (Quick Response) codes are barcodes containing information such as the bank account details of a merchant. Scanning one allows a consumer to make payment.

And to get more hawkers to come on board, local payment network Nets is coming up with QR codes on invoices so that hawkers will not need cash to pay their suppliers either.

That was another concern Mr Sahat had about mobile payment systems. “At this moment, I think only the stallholders (use them),” he said.

How about our suppliers, like the veggie supplier, egg supplier, tofu supplier?They say they still prefer cash.

Solving this has to be part of building a cashless ecosystem, acknowledged Nets chief executive officer Jeffrey Goh. “We have to look at it from the holistic viewpoint,” he said.

MAKING IT EASIER TO USE

Another pain-point stopping some hawkers from going cashless is their reliance on transient workers, payments technology company Visa found from a recent survey of 24 vendors.

“So the solution we need to introduce, or plan to introduce, for hawkers has to be a solution which is very simple and requires almost no training,” said Ms Ooi Huey Tyng, Visa country manager for Singapore and Brunei.

But even among hawkers who have adopted QR code payment, which is easy enough to use, doubts remain. Mr Leo Mak, who runs a drink stall at Tiong Bahru Market, thinks the system might slow down the transaction process.

Whatever I sell is (done) very fast – 30 seconds … (Now), I still have to look at people’s screens to see that (the payment is) successful.

A solution may be in the offing. DBS Bank plans to roll out a set of features for hawkers after looking at the “user journey” for its PayLah! app, one of the first mobile wallets launched by a bank here.

“We’re still developing it, but that new feature set will allow … you to change the fonts on your phone so that, basically, they become a lot more legible,” said DBS consumer banking group vice-president Kevin Lau.

“We’re also contemplating adding new features which allow hawkers to easily see when somebody has paid them through PayLah! … This could be in the form of a live feed on the app or through sound notifications.”

FAILURE TO LAUNCH, SO FAR

Given the manpower crunch in Singapore, food and beverage outlets such as hawker stalls would benefit from going cashless, as seen from the productivity gains in China.

But a mindset change, among other things, is needed

(Read: Going cashless at hawker centres: Challenges and opportunities)

Despite the high smartphone penetration rate in Singapore, where there are more phones than people, mobile payments have been slow to take off.

A survey done by EY found that out of every 100 Singaporeans, only 38 are comfortable paying with their phones, compared with the global average of 50. In India, that figure is 72, and in China, 83.

The adoption rate is growing across many countries, particularly in the Asia-Pacific. But this aspect of financial technology disruption has stalled in Singapore because “we have many options”, said Mr Liew.

For consumers to adopt mobile payments, there has to be a real differentiation, a real benefit … in terms of over and above using cash.

Visa’s Ms Ooi agrees. “Cash is just as convenient in most people’s minds, unless there is a compelling reason to change,” she said.

Nets – which recently launched its mobile wallet app, NetsPay, and will roll out this payment mode at all its 100,000 acceptance points by the middle of next year – wants to boost usage by wooing consumers with discounts.

“I can reward you for something that you’re doing every day. Wouldn’t you be interested, for example, if I can work with my partners and offer you a discount on your breakfast?” said Mr Goh.

The app digitalises the plastic ATM card users traditionally carry so that they can scan a QR code on Nets’ point-of-sale terminals.

“Therefore, we need to re-educate our users on how to use the digital card to make payments. And (the second thing), using the gamification side of things, is to push more value-added services onto the phone,” added Mr Goh.

TAKING FROM, AND TWEAKING, CHINA’S PRACTICES

Discounts to attract customers are a feature of the digital wallet service WeChat Pay that maker Tencent Holdings touted to merchants in China as a selling point when getting them to sign up.

Watch: The WeChat experience (3:43)

But companies like Nets will not be borrowing cashless processes wholesale from China.

For example, Chinese merchants are satisfied that they have been paid just by seeing that customers have scanned their QR code, said Mr Goh, whereas Nets is providing merchants here with a terminal that will print a notification receipt.

Singaporeans, being a little bit kiasu … want it to be safe. They want to make sure someone will pay them at the end of the day.

DBS, which has over 600,000 registered PayLah! users since its 2014 launch, has found that another successful practice in China – the giving of digital hongbaos (red packets) among WeChat’s millions of users – did not suit Singaporeans’ liking.

The bank incorporated this function in PayLah! two years ago, but “it didn’t quite fit in with the customer journey during Chinese New Year”, said DBS Bank head of cards and unsecured loans Anthony Seow.

“Because the typical way is when (you) go visit, somebody would wish you, and you wish the person back by giving the hongbao, so that part can’t quite happen when it’s electronic,” he said.

DBS is redesigning this feature to increase the adoption rate. That is not all it is doing. PayLah! used to offer mainly peer-to-peer money transfers but now has more services, such as payment of bills, service and conservancy charges and taxes.

“We’ve also done a cosmetic and technical revamp of the platform. We changed the colour… to dragon fruit because, based on our user research, we found that it was a more millennial-friendly colour,” said Mr Lau, referring to most of the app’s users aged between 24 and 36.

NO TIME TO WASTE

Change and innovation are needed quickly in Singapore’s cashless payment scene, said EY’s Mr Liew, because of the risk of a foreign player potentially coming in and taking over “a large part of the payment processing”.

Already, Chinese tourists are “helping Alipay to expand” here because they do not carry much cash, as is their wont back home, and expect to use the e-payment platform offered by the other technology giant behind China’s cashless revolution.

“Alipay has also said (that) at some stage … they’d very likely open it up to Singaporeans,” said Mr Liew.

When that really happens, then you got a serious, proven competitor in our marketplace. So there’s no time to waste.

Over at Tiong Bahru Market, Mr Mak has encountered “quite a few” Chinese visitors who did not have Singapore dollars. “They asked if they could use renminbi here,” he said, which was why he took up the mobile payment option.

The competition to become Singapore’s WeChat or Alipay now includes Apple and Samsung, with mobile wallets pre-installed on their phones; and tech companies, such as Grab, Fave, Liquid Pay and Razer, besides the three local banks.

This crowded scene is the reason the Government is pushing for a unified QR code that will be able to accept any of the mobile payment vendors. Merchants would then not need to print out different QR codes.

There is another incentive for Singapore to adopt mobile payments. Southeast Asia’s consumer spending is expected to reach US$2 trillion (S$2.72 trillion) by 2020.

The business opportunities include the advantages fintech and other companies can gain from data-mining their users, a benefit the Chinese economy has been reaping.

For consumers, mobile payments can save time through the integration of services if they can, for instance, choose their food, order and pay with a few taps of the finger, like diners in China do.

In future, phones might not even be needed. Biometric payments are slowly being piloted elsewhere, while a game of catch-up is in full swing in Singapore.

Read Part 1: How WeChat helped spark China’s cashless revolution. Can Singapore replicate its success? Watch the season premiere of Why It Matters (new episodes every Monday).