Usage of mobile banking and its effects on consumer behavior in Thailand

“What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?” it is highly likely that the answer is you looked at your smartphone. In 2016, Deloitte conducted a global mobile consumer survey and discovered that 61 percent of people check their phones within 5 minutes after waking up. Dubbed “the most innovative invention in the 21st century”, smartphones impacted our lives in many ways and revolutionized multiple industries. One of the industries disrupted is the banking industry as mobile banking empowered us to conduct banking activities anywhere at any time through the comfort of our smartphones. Similar to other ASEAN countries, Thailand experienced exponential growth in usage of mobile banking as a result of e- commerce expansion and improved e-payment infrastructure.Although studies on the underlying factors that influence mobile banking adoption has been extensively conducted, research to examine after-adoption behavior has been neglected. Thus, this research captures the current situation of mobile banking in Thailand and categorizes mobile banking users into different segments. Banks and government sectors alike will benefit from this comprehensive research as they can apply insights to generate suitable products for banking customers and develop Thailand’s electronic payment infrastructure.Secondary research from multiple journals and academic articles has been collected to gain fundamental background knowledge. Later, primary research through in-depth interviews and an online survey was conducted; statistical analysis was performed with the help of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program.Results show the majority of respondents likely have a positive perception towards mobile banking. Furthermore, findings suggest that Thai mobile banking users can be categorized into 3 segments. The largest segment is made up of heavy users called “Middle Aged Go-Getter” who seek mobile banking application reliability and useful features. Another heavy user called “Youthful Minimalist” values application ease of use and convenience. Finally, “Old School Veterans” are lights users whose service adoption heavily relies on recommendation from peers and online reviews.With the above findings it is recommended that commercial banks should consistently improve the performance and user friendliness of mobile banking applications in order to increase usage frequency among current heavy user segments. In addition, an untapped opportunity with the older user segment is ripe. Commercial banks need to educate and increase service adoption rate in order to reach the tipping point.