ALL of us have had our share of having to wait in long queues to pay for things at various government agencies. Imagine if you could just avoid the lines and do everything online. Then imagine it all being possible in ONE place.
Well, there’s no need to imagine any longer because MyPay allows you to do just that.
Co-founder Nick Liew’s goal is to make it as simple and hassle-free as possible for us to access as many government services and bills as possible through one login in one website.
WHAT CONVINCED YOU THAT THIS IDEA WOULD WORK?
All of us have had to search for government information or pay a government bill at some point in our lives. While some services are convenient to access, many are not.
One of the key experiences that convinced us that MyPay has a market was when a close friend, and one of the founding members of the team, had a scare when he was at the immigration gate on his way to his honeymoon.
He didn’t realise that he had a small unpaid National Higher Education Fund Corporation balance so the system barred him from passing through immigration.
His wife, meanwhile, had already sailed through right in front of him. There was a slight panic but he ended up checking the balance via his phone, clearing the bill by bank transfer, sending the payment confirmation by email, and then scrambling to catch his plane.
We felt there needed to a less stressful way to deal with situations like that.
WHAT WERE THE FIRST THINGS YOU DID WHEN YOU STARTED THIS BUSINESS?
To launch such a product, I first needed a good team. This was where I brought in my co-founder Joshua Smith, an ex-colleague from Uber. We got along really well at that company and since we had complementary skill sets, I felt he was the ideal person to collaborate with on this.
He’s an engineer by training and a tech genius, having run machine-learning projects in the region.
Naturally, he focuses on technology, product and data, while I oversee strategy, operations, marketing and customer experience. In other words, he does most of the heavy lifting!
HOW DID YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH UBER COME IN HANDY?
Uber taught me a lot about how a good tech company should and shouldn’t be like.
On the positive side, there were many best practices which Joshua and I are able to bring to the current team.
For example, we have a practice called one-on-one where individuals from different teams and departments meet regularly to discuss learnings and updates, which help to break down silos and improve collaboration.
Another example is the data-driven approach to every decision, from UI/UX layout and marketing campaigns to customer service messages. We constantly use data to check if our past decisions are making the impact we want.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE SO FAR?
I’d say building trust in the product. We constantly work with our government stakeholders, especially Mampu (Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit) from the Prime Minister’s Department, to make sure MyPay is secure and clearly-presented, while taking on users’ feedback on how to make the platform simple and trusted.
HOW MANY GOVERNMENT AGENCIES DOES MYPAY COVER?
We have 25 services from 17 government agencies, covering student loans, local taxes, traffic fines, and even voting location. Key agencies include the National Higher Education Fund Corporation, Selangor Land Office, Royal Malaysia Police and Election Commission.
WAS IT EASY GETTING THEM ON BOARD?
All government ministries and departments had been busy since last May 9 but we’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to meet most of them.
We’re particularly thankful to the ICT team at Mampu for facilitating many of the government interactions.
HOW SECURE IS THE SERVICE IF ALL SOMEONE NEEDS IS AN IC tO ACCESS THE PORTAL?
We’re very aware that trust is the main focus of MyPay and therefore Know-Your-Customer checks must be in-place to ensure users’ data privacy.
We have a three-step process in place whereby each IC must be registered to a unique phone number and email address; the phone number and email must be verified; and finally, the user must upload photos of their IC and a selfie for our matching algorithm to work.
Note that these photos must be taken on the spot with the phone’s camera. The system doesn’t accept previously-shot photos.
Only after these three checks are successful would users be allowed to view the data as per the IC number. It may seem troublesome for new users, but we prefer to err on the side of caution when it comes to privacy.
IS MYEG A RIVAL?
There’s some small overlap with MyEG as we’re both in the same space of making government services easier to access for the public. But there are key differences too.
MyEG allows for the online management of foreign workers, for example, which MyPay doesn’t do as we focus on Malaysian IC-related services.
HOW DOES MYPAY MAKE MONEY?
Signing up for an account and viewing your personal information is free but we charge a small service fee for each payment transaction.
This low flat fee is in accordance with the Ministry of Finance guidelines for online services.
WHAT ARE THE MOST REQUESTED SERVICES?
Popular ones include the Election Commission for voter registration and voting location checks, Royal Malaysia Police for police summons checks, National Higher Education Fund Corporation for loan repayments and Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional-i education savings.
HOW DO YOU GROW YOUR OFFERINGS GIVEN THAT THE NUMBER OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IS LIMITED?
On the contrary, there are still many government agencies that aren’t covered.
For example, we often think of large city councils when it comes to municipalities but in fact there are 149 Pihak Berkuasa Tempatan serving the entire population of Malaysia.
It’ll take time but we aim to support the digitisation of all agencies across the country. There’s still a lot more work to do.
WILL YOU ONLY COVER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES?
At the moment, that’s what we do but in the future, we may add commercial billers if there’s a wish for us to be an additional collection channel.
IS IT AVAILABLE ONLY ON THE WEB OR VIA APP TOO?
MyPay is available online and on mobile at www.mypay.com.my.
We chose to go web-first because of the wider accessibility and simpler signup process – there’s no need to download an app. In the longer term, we do plan to have native mobile apps.