I wonder how come socash has monopoly in this. Why have other players not entered this and why isn't DBS offering this in their own app, that would make it even more widespread adoption.
This is just my hypothesis from seeing how startups and banks work over many years, so disagree with my points if u like, I won't take it personally.
The logistics and economics behind socash is... intense. They have to convince individual stores to support their system, then pay them and the customer per transaction. They will essentially lose $ unless they negotiate a cut from the bank, who is the only party that can possibly pay them.
Most users/shops would probably delete the app in a heartbeat if there's no more money for them because SG has tons of ATMs.
Right now, like all startups, they're probably running on investor money (TM), like how grab and uber keep 'wasting' money. Banks usually don't do such risky endeavors themselves. DBS has ATMs everywhere already, and soCash is probably just a cheap experiment to help them show off their 'best digital bank' position without actually going thru all the effort themselves.
The banks would totally do it themselves if they think it's worth it, but only after seeing soCash sort of succeed first. Also,
DBS already has POSB Cash-Point.
