Ant Group Unveils Latest Milestones on its Globalization Efforts at Singapore Fintech Festival

Highlights:

• Alipay+’s global merchant coverage has more than doubled over the past six months to over 2.5 million;

• The Chinese mainland has become the latest destination where Alipay+ connects merchants with various digital payment methods in Asia, ahead of the Hangzhou Asian Games

Alipay+, provider of global cross-border digital payment and marketing solutions, announced its merchant coverage has more than doubled to 2.5 million, as it continues working on connecting businesses to multiple digital payment methods by collaborating with acquirer partners.

The payment methods merchants can adopt through one-time integration has now reached 15, so that they can tap over 1 billion e-wallet users and unlock the consumption potential of the mobile-savvy consumer.

Angel Zhao, President of International Business, Ant Group, shared the vision of Alipay+ and its latest developments at the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) Thursday.

“While many of you are familiar with the success of Alipay in China, Alipay+ is not another SuperApp we are launching globally. Built on top of the technology capabilities and know-how of Alipay, Alipay+ offers cross-border digital payment and marketing solutions connecting global merchants, online and offline, with multiple e-wallets and payment methods from different countries and regions and helping the merchants to engage with mobile-savvy consumers of those payment methods. We are off to a remarkable start since its official debut last year,” said Ms. Zhao at the company’s product showcase event dubbed “It’s A PLUS: How Alipay+ and partners build digital resilience for businesses”.

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“We are very excited about the long-awaited prospects of Kakao Pay users being able to make payments in China starting from this year”

“As businesses recover from the pandemic, Alipay+ is playing an important role in building resilience for the merchants by collaborating with our partners. Through simple integration, more than 2.5 million merchants around the world are able to access and better serve the growing user population of various leading digital payment providers, as digital transformation takes hold around the world,” she said.

The merchant network of Alipay+ includes regional and global digital entertainment providers, lifestyle services, e-commerce platforms and a wide range of brick-and-mortar businesses that cover major airports, shopping centers, duty free shops, convenience stores, cafes, restaurants and tourism facilities.

The global merchant coverage of Alipay+ by sector includes over 1,000 online platforms, more than 10 major airports, over 90,000 convenience stores, over 360,000 restaurants, nearly 200,000 taxis and major hotel brands, department stores, duty-free shops and tourist facilities in Asia and Europe.

Over the past six months, Alipay+ has been gaining ground in markets including Southeast Asia, South Korea and Japan, connecting local and regional merchants with various digital payment methods. Last month, three more Asia e-wallets were introduced to Singapore through Alipay+, bringing the total number of overseas e-wallets accepted to six. That follows new merchant partnership announcements in South Korea and Japan.

The Chinese mainland has become the latest destination for users of South Korea’s Kakao Pay and Malaysia’s Touch ‘n Go eWallet in a drive to enhance a seamless and convenient payment experience for international visitors ahead of the Hangzhou Asian Games, Ms. Zhao announced Thursday.

They will be able to pay with their home apps when visiting China. AlipayHK has been accepted in the Chinese mainland through an earlier integration.

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“We are pleased to continue our partnership with Alipay+ on cross-border payment solutions and expand our service territory beyond Singapore, Japan and South Korea. Touch ‘n Go eWallet is the first Malaysian e-wallet which can be used for payment in China. This augurs well for all our users travelling there. We expect our users to enjoy the same seamless experience and convenience of using Touch ‘n Go eWallet in China as how they would in Malaysia, and with the assurance that their transactions are safe and secure. We will continue to grow our acceptance to more markets in time to come,” said Alan Ni, Chief Executive Officer of TNG Digital Sdn Bhd.

“We are very excited about the long-awaited prospects of Kakao Pay users being able to make payments in China starting from this year,” said Kakao Pay CEO Shin Won-keun, commenting on the collaboration. “As the first provider of such service, we look forward to providing a tremendous amount of convenience for Korean travelers to China.”

Ms. Zhao also revealed that Alipay+ rewards, the digital marketing platform developed by Alipay+ with partner e-wallets to help global brands better engage with consumers worldwide through digital coupons and exclusive deals has already been adopted by six mobile payment apps, GCash (the Philippines), DANA (Indonesia), Kakao Pay (South Korea), Touch ‘n Go eWallet (Malaysia), TrueMoney (Thailand) and AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, China).

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