Western Union's digital segment pushing revenue growth

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Financial services and remittance company Western Union registered a positive growth trend owing to its digital payments segment during Q2 2017. It digital C2C segment revenue increased 23% year over year (YoY) on constant currency basis and transactions increased by 25%. However, overall C2C segment saw decline in revenue by 1% YoY and transactions increased a mere 3%. Overall, the company’s revenue increased 2% on constant currency basis in Q2 2017 owing to transactions in Latin America, North America and Europe. But in Middle East and Africa, there was a notable decline.

Currently, Western Union is focusing primarily on customer engagement through online engagement across social media platforms and digitization of its operations. The company has invested US$ 120 million on WU Way efficiency program out of which 40% went to severance and 20% to consultants. It plans on saving US$ 20 to 25 million annually through this approach. However, along with investment into digital channels, technology based acquisitions and partnerships have become essential foe the company to stay ahead in competition.

Along these lines, it had announced its partnership with Apple Pay in April, 2017. It is an important strategy as MoneyGram, which is a prominent competitor of Western Union is on the verge of being acquired by Ant Financial, owner of Chinese payment platform Alipay. With this acquisition, MoneyGram will gain access to 450 million user base of Alipay and benefit from its global presence.

Globally, International remittance market’s transaction value was US$ 105 billion in 2016 and expected to reach US$ 1,025 billion in 2021. From 2015 to 2016, the growth rate achieved was 74.8% while expected CAGR from 2017 to 2021 is projected to be 54.8%.

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