Half of Malaysian consumers would immediately stop using a technology brand or platform following a serious incident, such as a scam, data leak or service failure, according to the Southeast Asia Consumer Tech Trust Score report – this is the second-highest immediate abandonment rate recorded in Southeast Asia, behind the Philippines at 56% and ahead of Singapore at 48%.
Here’s What Southeast Asia Consumer Tech Trust Score Finds
The report examined consumer trust across ten technology categories, including cloud storage, cybersecurity, e-commerce, digital payments, generative AI, messaging apps, online banking, ride-hailing and delivery, social media, and telecommunications. The findings are based on an online survey of more than 3,000 consumers across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Online banking and digital payments recorded the highest average regional Trust Scores, at 81.7 and 80.4 respectively. Telecommunications, e-commerce, messaging apps, ride-hailing and cybersecurity formed a broad middle tier, while social media ranked lower despite frequent usage. Generative AI recorded the lowest or second-lowest Trust Score across all markets surveyed.
Malaysian Consumers Show Low Tolerance For Serious Incidents
According to the survey, 49.5% of respondents identified personal data misuse as their primary concern, while online scams and fraud appeared among the top three concerns for 79% of respondents across the region. Overall, 42% of respondents said they would immediately stop using a technology brand or platform following a serious incident, with only 3% saying they would continue using the affected service as normal.
This response was particularly pronounced for financial services in Malaysia, where 40% of respondents said they would stop using online banking services following an incident, and 20% said the same for digital payment services. By contrast, only 2% of respondents regionwide said they would stop using telecommunications services after a similar incident.
Independent Experts & Regulation Seen As Key To Restoring Trust
While 33% of respondents said they expect the greatest accountability from a company’s chief executive officer or founder during a failure, the survey found that CEOs and founders are also among the least trusted sources for explaining what went wrong. Instead, independent cybersecurity experts were identified as the most trusted post-incident source in four of the six markets surveyed, while government sources were most trusted in Singapore, selected by 43% of respondents.
In Malaysia, 28% of respondents identified government approval and regulatory compliance as the strongest indicator of trust in a technology company, a pattern also seen in Singapore (36%) and the Philippines (23%). By comparison, 43% of Indonesian respondents cited a proven track record as the strongest indicator of trust, while respondents in Thailand and Vietnam pointed to clear explanations of data usage, each selected by 26% of respondents.
Usage Levels Do Not Always Reflect Consumer Trust
The study also found that high usage of a technology category does not necessarily correspond to high trust. Social media, used by 79% of respondents, ranked lowest or second-lowest in Trust Scores across all six markets, with a regional average score of 67.8, despite usage well above the regional category average of approximately 38%.
In contrast, categories including telecommunications, e-commerce, ride-hailing, cybersecurity and cloud storage recorded trust levels exceeding usage, while online banking and digital payments recorded both above-average usage and the highest levels of trust in the region.
Pokdepinion: The finding that Malaysians trust banking apps most yet abandon them fastest after a failure suggests trust in this sector is fairly conditional rather than deeply rooted, which financial brands may be underestimating.
