Exploring Factors Influencing Electronic Money Adoption (Qualitative Study of T-Cash)

T-Cash, the second biggest electronic money in Indonesia, has been around for seven years but number of registered yet active users is still low. This study aims to know the reasons that drive Telkomsel subscribers registering T-Cash, and factors that driving and inhibiting T-Cash adoption. Qualitative research with correlational type of study is used in the research. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with three respondents in Jabodetabek, Bandung, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, and Semarang. The results suggest that the relative advantages of electronic money include payment process simplicity, cashless transaction ability, ubiquitous purchases and payments, time efficiency, and queues avoidance. Micropayments are the most compatible with T-Cash especially for the purchases of F& Bs, cinema tickets, mobile phone credits purchases, bill payments, and purchases in certain events. The adoption of T-Cash is mostly contributed by other users influence as well as the very well-known issuer, Telkomsel. Further, additional findings, the price promotions, are frequently shown up as an effective strategy for T-Cash target market. There are several barriers that slow the T-Cash adoption, including complex top up process, high top up fee, limited merchants acceptance, lack of device and network reliability, unauthorized of T-Cash use, and compromise of privacy.