TNG Digital had already won the scale game. It had Malaysia’s largest e-wallet user base and a brand that barely needed an introduction.
A few months back, TNG eWallet had 26 million verified users, including 23 million Malaysians, or more than 85% of the country’s adult population.
The Edge Malaysia described it as “by far” the country’s biggest e-wallet operator by user base.
By the time Alan Ni sat down with us, he said that figure had climbed to 27 million.
Still, the company was losing money.
Around three years ago, TNG Digital had been operating for six years when its shareholders asked CEO Alan Ni a fairly obvious question:
How much more market share did it need before it could finally turn a profit?
Alan’s answer was probably not what they expected.
“If we do not diversify our business, more share means more losses.”
More users and more transactions sounded good on paper but the problem was that the economics of payments did not necessarily turn that scale into profit.
Alan singled out QR payments as one area where transactions could lose money after costs.
“Market share does not resolve the problem,” he said. “Payment will always be our home … But you have to monetise beyond that.”
So TNG Digital started changing the mix.
Payments accounted for around 75% of its income three years ago. Year-to-date in 2026, that share had fallen to 47%, meaning more than half of its income now comes from elsewhere.
Cross-border payments went from virtually zero in 2023 to 11% of income. B2B technology and merchant services, also starting from zero three years ago, now contribute 15%.
The shift helped TNG Digital break even in September 2024 and Alan said the company has remained profitable every month since, with 2025 becoming its first full profitable year.
All that comes together at a time where payments have hardly disappeared. The CEO of TNG Digital told us that he estimated they could still account for 60% to 70% of transactions on the platform.
With 27 million verified users and 13.5 million monthly transacting users, TNG Digital already has the audience.
The more interesting question is what else it can do with that reach?
Wait, You Can Buy Tyres on TNG eWallet?
Turns out, quite a lot.
During our conversation, I mentioned coming across something I had not expected while exploring the app with my wife.
You can buy Continental tyres through TNG eWallet.
Vincent Fong, our Chief Editor, had not noticed it either.
Alan admitted that even he cannot remember every service available on the platform.
It is a nice problem to have, until users cannot find what they are looking for.
TNG Digital no longer wants to describe itself as only a payment app, though Alan is not particularly fond of another familiar label either: “super app”.
“I want to be your everyday digital companion,” he said. “You use me not because I am super. It is because I am convenient and helpful.”
More services also meant the old app design was starting to feel crowded.
Alan compared it to Yahoo in its earlier days, when homepages were packed with categories and links.
Anyone who remembers those pages probably gets the point. Everything was there but finding it was another matter.
TNG Digital wants the app to work more like Google.
“We are migrating from the Yahoo age to the Google age,” Alan said. “The most important feature right now is actually the search bar.”
Instead of remembering where every icon sits, users can search for what they need. Type in tyres, travel or investments, and the app may already have something for you.
Alan also acknowledged that the transition could have been handled better. Familiar icons moved, and some users struggled to find functions they had grown used to.
Anyone trying to pay for parking with a queue forming behind them can probably understand the frustration.
Search, however, may already be an intermediate step.
After Search Comes AI
Alan sees the app moving from icons to search, and eventually from search towards voice and AI.
The first step is fairly easy to imagine. Instead of typing what you need, you ask.
He believes that could also make the app easier for older users who currently rely on their children to teach them where to tap.
“You no longer need to teach them different steps,” he said. “Just search the word, and it will tell you the rest.”
Giving AI permission to spend your money is where Alan becomes more cautious.
TNG Digital’s GoTravel feature can help organise a trip, for example, but the customer still completes the payment.
Planning a holiday with AI is one thing. Letting an agent decide when to move thousands of ringgit is a much bigger leap.
“Do you feel comfortable [letting it] pay RM10,000 on your behalf without you knowing? Maybe not. Not there yet.”
Agentic payments may eventually reach that point. Alan’s concern is whether people will trust them enough when they do.
Alan Ni Does Not Believe in 996
The conversation was not all payments, AI and business models.
When the topic shifted to work-life balance, Alan had a very clear view on 996, the work culture associated with working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week.
“I do not believe 996.”
TNG Digital does not appear to run that way either.
Alan said anyone walking through its office at around 7pm on a normal day would find about 90% of employees had already gone home.
His problem with 996 is what happens when staying late becomes part of the performance.
“I think some of the 996 is performance. The employee tries to impress their boss.”
If employees feel they cannot leave until the boss leaves, Alan does not consider that healthy.
Urgent work is different.
“If there’s something urgent, I will stay until it is done. That moment does not come every day, but when it comes, we always deliver.”
During the conversation, Vincent described it as performative hustle versus productive hustle.
Alan’s preference?
“We want the second one.”
It was one of those parts of the podcast that said quite a lot about how Alan thinks without needing a long management philosophy attached to it.
Work hard when the work calls for it because sitting around until 9pm just to be seen is another story.
Alan Was Pitching Touch ’n Go to CIMB Back in 2013
Perhaps the best story came near the end of the conversation.
Long before Alan became CEO of TNG Digital, CIMB sent him to an executive training programme at INSEAD.
His graduation presentation had a familiar subject.
Touch ’n Go.
Alan presented it to CIMB’s CEO in 2013, and his message was quite memorable:
“Touch and Go is a gold mine, but we are not digging enough.”
He believed the business needed a partner and even named two possibilities in the presentation: WeChat or Alipay.
Years later, when the joint venture behind TNG Digital finally materialised, Alan found himself looking at something that resembled an idea he had already put on slides.
Some of what he imagined in 2013 eventually became reality.
His timing was a little optimistic.
“One thing I didn’t realise is it would take eight years to happen. I probably underestimated the difficulty.”
There is something fitting about Alan eventually ending up at the company.
Back in 2013, he was standing in front of CIMB’s CEO arguing that Touch ’n Go had much more potential than people were extracting from it.
More than a decade later, he is still trying to figure out how much more can be built around the same network.
So What Does Alan Think Comes Next?
Alan would not tell us everything he is thinking about for the next decade.
He did offer one clue.
“I still think the merchant requires more help.”
TNG Digital has around two million merchants, 80% of which Alan said are SMEs with many that can already accept digital payments.
Building loyalty programmes and other tools to keep customers coming back is harder.
Large chains can afford their own apps and rewards programmes but on the other side of the coin, like neighbourhood café or independent shop, they have fewer resources to play with.
And customers are unlikely to download an app for every merchant they visit either.
Who wants 15 loyalty apps sitting on their phone?
Alan thinks TNG Digital could provide some of that infrastructure through a platform people already use.
“Digitising merchant operations is a big business,” he said. “We are just getting started.”
A few years from now, he believes it could become another major growth engine for TNG Digital.
Want to hear the rest? Catch the full conversation with TNG Digital CEO Alan Ni on Fintech Fireside Asia here.
