Over 58 million Filipinos spent 4.4 million hours using e-wallet apps in 2022, according to consumer credit service Digido's data released Monday, April 10.

Digido is part of the Singapore-headquartered Robocash Group servicing millions of clients across the globe.

Furthermore, the credit service firm estimates that the total number of accounts of 14 e-wallet apps covered in its report could reach 81 million Filipinos by 2025.

The e-wallets operating in the country include CIS Bayad Center, Coins.ph, eCebuana, GCash, Juan Cash, Lazada Wallet, Mango, MarCo Pay, Maya, Moneygment, PayLoro, Star Pay, Tagcash and Toktokwallet.

All 14 e-wallets have applications inside the iOS App Store as well as Google Play and registered 114.4 million unique downloads as of December 2022.

This represents 20 percent of the total downloads from Business and Finance categories across all devices and all platforms.

From December 2018 to December 2022, the total number of unique downloads among the e-wallets included in the study increased by 632 percent, over 99 million, growing by 30.5 percent, over 26.7 million, in 2022 alone.

The e-wallets examined in the study are those owned or operated by companies possessing both EMI (Electronic Money Issuer) and OPS (Operator of Payment System) licenses or those operated in partnership with a company holding EMI licenses.

The 58 million active user base is 8 percent, or 5 million less, compared to December 2021, but up 466 percent versus December 2018.

This figure is comparable to 72 percent of the population aged 15 and above.

Users are considered active if they logged in an e-wallet application in the last 30 days ending 31 December 2022.).

On average, e-wallet users in 2022 visited at least one of the mobile apps in this study about 16 times per month, similar to 2021, and slightly lower compared to 2020 (17 times) and 2019 (19 times).

Digido also estimates that the unique number of users could reach 67.3 million people by 2025.

Growth is due to expected increase in the Philippines population.

Those aged 15 and above will number 85.4 million by the end of 2025, according to estimates.

Despite the global recession, the current economy of the country is in its growth stage with GDP at +2.9 percent Q3/Q2 2022, reaching $413.2 billion.

In addition, the global demand for electronic money is growing.

From 2023 to 2025, the global volume of digital payments will grow by 42.6 percent, and the number of users by 18.6 percent.