GrabPay, SMIC partner to enable mobile wallet payments to SM Cinemas

GrabPay, the mobile wallet of Southeast Asian app giant Grab, has partnered with SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) to allow the purchase of SM Cinema tickets by using the application.

Through the partnership, purchasing cinema tickets at SM Cinema tickets will be made through scanning the QR codes available in cinema ticketing booths.

GrabPay will be rolled out in all SM Cinemas in Metro Manila and Cebu this month and will be made available nationwide by end of 2019.

The service can also be used to pay through the SM Cinema’s website to enable users to purchase movie tickets in advance.

“The Philippines is ripening for a digital payments revolution. In the Philippines, we are seeing consistent increase in our GrabPay use base with 130 percent growth from the first quarter of 2018 to present,” GrabPay managing director for Singapore, Malaysia, and Philippines Opo Huey Tyng said during the launch of the service in Pasay City on Wednesday.

“We are excited to take our innovative mobile wallet GrabPay outside the Grab app and bring it closer to the everyday lives of Filipinos starting with SM Cinemas,” Tyng said.

For her part, SM Lifestyle Inc. senior assistant vice president for Ad and Corporate Sales Maria Isabel Santillan said SM’s partnership with Grab will help the company improve its services.

GrabPay first entered into a strategic partnership with SMIC in November 2018 to develop products and services that will promote cashless transactions across the country.

Apart from QR and online payments integration at SM Cinemas, GrabPay will also be soon available at SM supermarkets, restaurants, and shops in SM malls in Metro Manila this year.—LDF, GMA News