Malaysians have become more confident in shopping online, giving the e-commerce sector the highest gain in the trust index but mobile wallets remain the least trusted sector.
A survey by global market research outfit Ipsos shows that the level of trust Malaysians have in e-commerce businesses more than doubled from 2022 to 2023, rising from 23% to 51% for a 28% gain.
At the other end of the spectrum, e-wallet service providers were at the bottom of the table with only a 48% trust index in 2023 despite a 16% improvement from 2022.
However, overall, the e-commerce sector was the 13th most trusted among the 17 sectors surveyed.
The oil and gas sector topped the trust index at 69% but there was no comparison with previous years given that it was a new entrant.
Other new entrants were utilities with a 66% trust index and the universities group with 57%.
The media sector suffered the sharpest decline in the trust level, dropping from 57% to 48% between the two years.
It is unclear if social media has had any impact on the people’s trust in media companies.
Overall, Malaysian businesses were able to maintain the same level of trust, at 56%, since 2021.
Among the other industries that also saw improvements (in order of percentage gain) were airline and mobile devices at 11% each and automotive at 9%.
Apart from the media industry, the other sector that lost trust was fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), which dropped just 1% to 62%.
Despite its sharp drop, the media industry was not the least trusted sector. The ignominy goes to the e-wallet sector.
Of the more than 100 brands covered in the survey, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) came out tops, followed closely by Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) and Shell.
EPF, which topped the table in 2021 and 2022, could only manage fourth place last year.
The most trusted companies by industry were Shell for oil and gas, TNB for utilities, Malaysia Airlines for the airline sector, Perodua for automotive, EPF for GLCs and Apple for mobile devices.
In the FMCG sector, Nestle was tops while among conglomerates, gaming company Genting had the winning hand.
In the telecoms sector, Maxis was number one, Maybank was the most trusted financial institution and in the e-commerce sector, Shopee was ahead of the rest.