Online lending firm Digido said over 2 million Filipinos used digital lending applications last year, spending a total of 75,305 hours on the apps.
Digido said the figure was determined using 10 digital lending platforms operating in the Philippines that have applications in the iOS App Store and/or Google Play, including its own platform.
Digido said lending apps had a combined total of 14.2 million downloads as of December 2022, about 3.4 percent of the total downloads from finance categories across all devices and all platforms.
“This is an increase of 2.2 percent compared to November 2022 (307,000) and an increase of 35.2 percent compared to December 2021 (3.7 million),” it said.
“These 2.3 million active users of at least one of the ten platforms is approximately 3.2 percent of the Philippine adult population aged 18 and over by 2022 United Nations estimates. In other words, one of every 30 adult Filipinos access the services of the 10 digital lending platforms at least once a month,” Digido added.
Farit Shakirov, Digido country manager, said this is a “clear indication responsible credit services continue to be an effective means of breaching inequality in accessing financial tools.”
Average monthly duration of use per session of these apps is at 12 minutes and 46 seconds while the duration of one session per user was at one minute and 14 seconds.
Shakirov said significant bursts of user login activity in 2022 was noted in March, July and November, mainly due to the positive dynamics of certain platforms working with small and medium-sized businesses.
“Possible reasons behind these surges include ongoing promotions, favorable conditions, or the launch of specialized loan products for entrepreneurs,” he said.
Shakirov said Digido observes that micro, small and medium enterprises are still heavily underfunded and limited in their ability to continuously grow and develop, which only increases the potential for the penetration of digital lending platforms.
Digido is a unit of Singapore-based Robocash Group.
