Despite geopolitical risk for cross-border B2B payments and security concerns over digital payment methods, revenue from the Asia-Pacific (APAC) B2B payments market is estimated to double, reaching $1,356.28bn by 2025 from $671.32bn in 2018.
Even though the concerns are likely to restrain the growth of the market, the drivers behind the expansion are the growing B2B eCommerce market and rising adoption of financial technology in APAC.
The figures are contained in a recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan, entitled Growth Opportunities in the Asia-Pacific B2B Payments Market, Forecast to 2025.
Dewi Rengganis, Industry Analyst, ICT, Asia-Pacific at Frost & Sullivan, commented: “Strategic partnerships among key local and global industry participants have increased B2B payment adoption and promoted digital transformation across APAC.
“Additionally, with the increasing adoption rate of e-Invoicing, the B2B payments market is gaining further momentum as a large number of enterprises are migrating towards e-Invoicing instead of paper invoicing.
“Businesses are increasingly embracing electronic payment forms and are continuously innovating with alternative systems to create value-added services for their end customers. Further, by utilizing this capability (electronic payment forms), businesses can offer better customer experience and create new disruptive business models as well as new revenue streams.”
The geopolitical risks and security concerns will hold things back, but according to the report, the B2B payment vendors’ focus on the following aspects will boost market growth and present immense opportunities, including:
- cryptocurrency could be used for cross-border payment and settlement by verifying the origin and authenticity of the product as it moves across the value chain;
- payment providers could enable customers to attain better feasibility of the transaction processes and traceability in historical data transactions, which mean customers could identify potentially compromised transactions;
- B2B payment solution providers can develop innovative payment products that can address both working capital and cash flow challenges for SMEs;
- B2B payment solution providers can collaborate with major card networks to offer virtual credit cards to enterprise customers.
