Over two million Filipino active users spent 75,305 hours — equivalent to nine years — in digital lending applications on 2022 alone, according to consumer credit service Digido report released Monday, January 23.
The ten digital lending platforms operating in the Philippines with applications inside the iOS App Store and Google Play, including Digido, had a combined total of 14.2 million downloads, as of December 2022.
This represented 3.4 percent of the total downloads from Finance categories across all devices and all platforms.
The total was also 2.2 percent more compared to November 2022 (+307 thousand) and 35.2 percent more compared to December 2021 (+3.7 million).
Some 2.3 million active users of at least one of those ten platforms account for 3.2 percent of the Philippine adult population aged 18 and over.
Active users are defined as those who have consistently logged into the application at least once over the past 6 months to December 2022.
In other words, one of every 30 adult Filipinos access the services of the ten digital lending platforms at least once a month.
“Our recent analysis of select digital lending services shows that responsible credit services continue to be an effective means of breaching inequality in accessing financial tools," says Digido country manager Farit Shakirov.
Average monthly duration of use session of these apps ended at 12 minutes and 46 seconds while the duration of one session per user was at one minute and 14 seconds.
Significant bursts of user login activity in 2022 occurred in March, July and November, due to the positive dynamics of certain platforms working with small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
SMBs account for approximately 36 percent of the country's GDP.
Possible reasons behind these surges include ongoing promotions, favorable conditions, or the launch of specialized loan products for entrepreneurs.
Digido observed that Micro, small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) 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.