Yape, the digital wallet of the Banco de Crédito de Perú, has landed in Bolivia under the premise of serving a market where MSMEs are protagonists and need to streamline their transactions through micropayments and credits.
The novelist Charles Dickens once said: “Man is an animal of habit.” This is a phrase that can be applied in multiple scenarios and digital wallets are no exception. Its use became massive worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, after quarantine periods and distrust of cash spread. Today, we have left the impact of the virus behind us, but digital wallets remain in force. Events pass, customs stay.
In Latin America, we can see specific cases such as in Peru, a country where the Banco de Crédito (BCP) recorded in November 2020 that the use of these services had grown by 500% during that year. Likewise, Yape, BCP's digital wallet, had grown by up to 700%, gaining more than 25,000 new users daily in Peru. Over the years, the app became a Swiss army knife that offers discounts in restaurants and leisure alternatives, as well as microcredits. The next big step was the one that took place two weeks ago: the internationalization of Yape with its arrival in Bolivia.
It should be noted that BCP has been based in the highland country since 1994 and even already had an exclusive digital wallet: Soli Pagos, with more than 800,000 registered users. Why was it decided to abandon this proposal in favor of Yape? AméricaEconomía spoke with Raimundo Morales, CEO of Yape , to obtain answers about the background and future of this new stage of the popular application. To begin with, Morales believes that the BCP can replicate the success amassed by Yape in Peru in terms of financial inclusion and adoption of digital wallets. So it was decided to launch Yape in Bolivia as an evolved form of Soli, taking advantage of the fact that both aim at a similar target market. “In addition, if we combine both applications, we can save ourselves the task of studying what works and what doesn't twice, obviously maintaining the characteristics of each of the countries,” says Morales.
"THE WAR ON CASH"
When in doubt about the route to follow in the Bolivian market, the CEO of Yape first clarifies that the application was not created to compete for market share against other banks. “In reality, we are looking for a solution to earn the cash or to compete against him and beat him. In Bolivia we believe that it is similar and at the same time, that the space for growth is infinitely greater than what all the wallets and mobile applications of the banks have today added together,” says the Peruvian executive.
In this way, Yape is committed to bringing digital payment to hundreds of Bolivian users, including those who are not affiliated with the BCP or do not have a bank account at all. On the other hand, unlike Peru, in Bolivia interoperability has already been implemented through payments with QR codes. In other words, bank apps and digital wallets can read each other's QR codes. It is not unreasonable to think that this compatibility between platforms will benefit the dissemination of Yape in Bolivia. As for international microtransactions, such operations are not yet possible; However, Morales highlights that this function is already among the plans of the same team that currently develops the remittance sending function.
A CAUTIOUS EXPANSION
Although BCP operates exclusively in Peru and Bolivia, Yape's adaptability to clients outside the Peruvian bank seemed to leave the door open for its imminent expansion to other countries in the region. However, Morales is reluctant to face this possibility for a simple reason. “For now we don't want to open the application in four or five different countries. We want to focus on our development in Peru, as well as the launch and evolution in Bolivia,” he says. An evolution that includes the implementation of the microcredit system already existing in Peru. To date, Yape has carried out more than 500,000 operations in which loans of S/. 200 or S/. 300 in terms of 20 or 30 days.
This reach has been translated into the positioning of Yape as the main credit placement channel in Peru. Morales highlights that interest rates are usually very low (less than 2%) and that this feature is key to the sustainability of microcredits. “We also highlight that half of these loans have been allocated to clients who had never before had a relationship with the financial system. It is one of the functions that we hope to transfer to the Bolivian market,” describes Morales.
Other imminent developments include the “Yape Tienda”, a service that will allow you to purchase household appliances, as well as carry out exchange rate operations. On the other hand, loans may be divided into multi-installments. All of this occurs under one premise: simplify the lives of Yaperos by digitalizing many of the activities they carry out physically. This vision of “less is more” is also transferred to the differential value that Yape seeks to convey. A simple name is used, which appeals to colloquial Peruvian language and whose friendly interface allows the user to become familiar with it without the need for a tutorial.
“The first thing is to keep it simple. And then, we ensure issues of stability, security and proximity: that the user trusts Yape as a tool that will be there to support them in the best and fastest way possible,” says Morales. Thus, the platform includes “Yape Promos”, launched in 2022 and which focuses on offering discounts on food and other services, such as cinemas. “Today we want to enhance this proposal with two new functionalities that will be added this month: the purchase of tickets for events and soccer matches, which will be done in the same application,” Morales announces. To introduce this utility, Yape relies on the Joinnus platform, which was acquired by Credicorp, the financial holding company that manages BCP, in March 2023. Likewise, the CEO does not rule out the arrival of a new functionality intended for yaperos. gamers .
OPTIMISTIC PROJECTIONS
By the end of 2024, Yape hopes to reach a minimum of two and a half million users in Bolivia. To achieve the ambitious goal, Morales believes that it is necessary to appeal to small businesses. “Like Peru, the Bolivian economy is based on many entrepreneurs. There are many one- or two-person shops that set up their own business. That is what mobilizes the economy. And we believe that they can form a large “yapero” audience by facilitating their transactions,” says the executive.
Ultimately, with the launch of Yape Bolivia, the application will add more than 13 million users in total and thus consolidate itself as one of the main mobile wallets in Latin America. “We want to become the main digital ecosystem in the country. And we are going down that path: currently, 40% of recharges in Peru are made through Yape,” says Morales. Thus, Yape seeks to remain at the forefront of the technological revolution that micropayments have brought about. A tool that emerged as a curiosity, was strengthened by a crisis and today, has forever changed the way we perceive our expenses. We still don't know if cash's days are numbered, but the winds seem to be blowing in that direction.
