If SafeEntry were a payment app

It would be the most successful in Singapore in terms of customer acquisition, and retention.

For those who do not live in Singapore, SafeEntry is “is a national digital check-in system that logs the names, NRIC/FINs and mobile numbers of individuals visiting hotspots, workplaces of essential services, as well as selected public venues to facilitate contact tracing efforts.”

The reason is simple – to development a successful wallet/mobile payment system, a high frequency use case is almost a must. Ideally a high frequency, low amount transaction type. (Otherwise your customer acquisition cost will become prohibitively high).

SafeEntry’s use case – checking in and out of every building – will be even better than the best current payment use case in use (Grab ride hailing) and best current theoretical use case (MRT/buses).

Each user will have to use SafeEntry multiple times a day, regardless whether you are taking train, bus, taxi, private hire car or your legs to reach your destination.

This is especially the case if Covid-19 is here to stay (which of course we hope not).

No marketing cost, no user retention issues.

No merchant acquisition costs as well. Within days it has been deployed to more than 16,000 venues (or 40,000 according to a different source).

Imagine how much it would cost (in both manpower, money and time) for a commercial wallet operator to acquire these many merchants.

Perhaps some interoperability with other, existing payment/wallet apps?