When Robertson Chiang first started experimenting with online payments, the vision was clear: help Filipinos without credit cards participate in e-commerce. But there was one major problem—online banking wasn’t ready.
“Back then, electronic payments meant credit cards. There were no e-wallets, no alternative options,” Chiang recalls. At the time, credit card penetration in the Philippines was only around 3-4%, leaving a massive gap in the market.
Chiang saw an opportunity. He started tinkering with an online banking system that would allow people to pay for e-commerce transactions directly from their bank accounts.
But it didn’t take off.
“People weren’t comfortable using online banking for payments. Most were only using it to check their balance,” he explains.
That realization forced a crucial pivot. Instead of relying on online banking, Chiang looked at what Filipinos actually trusted—cash.
“The market was still really cash-based, so I took a step back and started offering cash payments,” he says.
Dragonpay introduced a system that allowed customers to physically go to a bank, hand over cash to a teller, and pay for their online transactions. It was a simple workaround but one that bridged the gap between offline payments and online shopping.
Chiang also saw an opportunity with payment centers like LBC and Cebuana Lhuillier, which were already processing bill payments for utilities like Meralco and Manila Water.
“They didn’t have the concept of Dragonpay as an intermediary between them and e-commerce merchants, so we built that integration,” he explains.
By making cash payments seamless and widely accessible, Dragonpay positioned itself as the alternative payment provider for the e-commerce boom.
The result? Filipinos who didn’t have credit cards could now shop online, fueling growth not just for Dragonpay but for the country’s digital economy.
What started as a failed attempt at online banking payments became the foundation for a fintech company that changed the way Filipinos buy online.
This article includes quotes from an interview originally published by Esquire Philippines, authored by Henry Ong.
