Touch ‘n Go Digital’s latest partnership Is Great & All But When Can We Use The Ewallet For ALL Tolls?

TNG Digital and Revenue Group have today cemented their ambitions to serve it’s users better by signing an MoU which allows Touch ‘n Go eWallet users to make purchases on Alibaba-owned Taobao and Tmall using their eWallet application.

With Taobao & Tmall being the worlds largest e-commerce marketplaces with monthly active mobile users of 755 million, it makes perfect business sense. The Touch ‘n Go eWallet has amassed over five million registered users since its inception a couple of years ago and for all its aggressive expansion and impressive collaborations, the company seems to have forgotten its roots.

Let’s be real for a second, Touch n’ Go pretty much made it’s name as a convenient means for you to pay for tolls. Eventually it expanded into a convenient way for us to pay for parking and today, it has an eWallet—Which makes perfect sense, really. What doesn’t make any sense to me is the fact that the company has secured more than 80,000 merchant acceptance points, and yet, some tolls still don’t allow you to pay with your TNG eWallet.

Let’s just say for example you have RM 50 in your eWallet and you’re driving to Melaka. You’d think you’re good on tolls, right? WRONG. You’d still need to reload your physical card to get past tolls. Does that make any freaking sense to you?

The TNG direct ePay feature only applies to tolls in the Klang Valley, and some people have learnt that the hard way. Imagine driving to the airport only to find yourself stuck at a toll, not because your TNG eWallet is empty, but because your physical card is. All of which is funny (but also sad) because at today’s event, TNG Digital Sdn Bhd CEO Ignatius Ong had this to say:

“We at Touch ‘n Go eWallet want to continue being the enabler for a truly cashless society and what better way then, than to be available as a payment channel on the world’s largest e-commerce marketplaces, Taobao and Tmall.

Oh, the irony!

It may not necessarily be a better way, but it’ll make a lot of people a whole lot happier if you’d just integrate the eWallet with ALL tolls.

Now, you would think this obvious issue would be #1 on their to-do list. I mean, for a company that made its name as a toll payment alternative and champions convenience for its users, merging your eWallet and toll payment should probably be up there on your list of things to do, right?

Well, judging from the aforementioned quote, it does seem like it- On the surface, at least. The company is constantly championing being an enabler for a truly cashless society but has failed to fix the blatant issues that’s plaguing the platform. Why bother focusing on partnerships with the likes of TGV Cinemas and Revenue Group when you’ve not even fixed the one thing that separates your platform from the rest?

It’s almost comical. Touch ‘n Go eWallet users can purchase movie tickets, pay for retail shopping ranging from F&B and entertainment but can only pay for some tolls.

Priorities guys, priorities.