In the face of COVID-19, YouTrip has set its sight on making clear that its payment service is great not just for travellers but also online shoppers who buy in foreign currencies.
“YouTrip supports payments in over 150 different currencies worldwide with no fees and at the best exchange rates, of which 10 selected currencies are available for in-app exchange so you can store and lock down a good rate whenever it’s available,” YouTrip Thailand’s co-founder Juthasree Kuvinichkul told The Story Thailand.
Launched as a multi-currency travel wallet into Singapore in 2018 and then to the Thai market last November, YouTrip presents a contactless debit card that charges no entrance fee, no annual fee, and no 2.5-per-cent currency converter fee. A YouTrip Mastercard is therefore a perfect wallet for travellers.
Recognising that COVID-19 is disrupting travels across the world, YouTrip now focuses on waging online campaigns to highlight its multi-currency travel wallet platform’s benefits for cross-border online shopping.
“Shoppers can use YouTrip to manage exchange rates and get products they want at the lowest prices,” Juthasree pointed out.
There are ample opportunities for YouTrip, which offers cross-border payment benefits, because records show cross-border online shopping has jumped ever since the COVID-19 outbreak started. Alibaba, for example, has found that sales on its online platform soar by six times. YouTrip, which primarily focused on travellers in the beginning, has also noticed that its users’ cross-border payments have lately risen by three folds.
“For now, we focus on online campaigns and cross-border payments,” Juthasree said, “But when the situation returns to normal, our focus will shift back to the offline mode as we are confident that people will be traveling again”.
The cofounder of YouTrip has predicted an optimistic outlook for her business. “We expect big growth after vaccine against COVID-19 becomes available. The world will definitely see more trips, not fewer trips,” she said.
She said YouTrip had also planned to launch its services to one or two more country/countries in the next 18 months.
Raising USD26 million fund from the Pre-Series A round last year, Juthasree said her firm had adequate fund for its current team to prepare for significant service expansion in the near future. There is neither salary reduction nor lay-off at YouTrip.
“We are going to spread our wings across Southeast Asia. At the very least, we will have YouTrip up and running in eight Southeast Asian nations for sure,” Juthasree talked about her promising business.
She said travellers, after all, would be able to save their overseas spending by nearly 10 per cent when they paid with YouTrip rather than a credit card.
“We are going to support our users with analytic tools too so that they can easily manage their finance,” she said.
She said travelers would enjoy extra security when traveling with YouTrip. If any problem occurs to their YouTrip account, they can have it locked in an instant and have the peace of mind from the fact that their YouTrip account is separate from their key accounts.
Seeing journeys as parts of people’s lives, YouTrip has got about 200,000 downloads ever since its launch in Thailand. The number of downloads looks set to keep rising again after the COVID-19 situation eases.
