Photo of a person making payment for their actions.
Ant International
Chinese fintech giant Ant Group hopes to boost its global reach through its digital offering Alipay+ as it seeks to connect mobile payment apps around the world.
“We found that people want to use their home digital wallet when they travel internationally. So they don’t want to load their card into another app that they don’t know about,” said Douglas Feagin, senior vice president. Alibabatold CNBC.
Ant Financial, the group’s global subsidiary, launched Alipay+ in 2020, allowing foreigners to use their country’s app to pay in China by scanning the QR code of Alipay, Ant Group’s mainly domestic platform, and transparently Make payments in other countries through local partners.
“We see huge expansion opportunities and relatively broad reach in Asia that we want to replicate in places like the Middle East, Latin America and Europe,” Feigin said. “People from all of those regions are going to other regions, so it’s A huge opportunity for expansion.”
Ant Financial has invested in country-specific e-wallets across Asia, but CEOs want to push their products overseas, said Feagin, Ant Financial’s international president.
Feigin said the company has some cross-border travel business from tourists outside China, but “it’s mainly focused on places where Chinese tourists go.” Ant Financial has entered Europe and the United States through Alipay, two countries where Chinese tourism was booming before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ant Financial seeks to capitalize on early access to these markets through its Alipay+ product.
“Our advantage is that Alipay is already accepted by many merchants around the world, so our first step is to convert these merchants into Alipay+ merchants. So they can accept not just one wallet, but many wallets,” Feagin said. .
It is understood that Alipay+ has now connected 88 million merchants in 57 countries and regions with 1.5 billion consumer accounts through more than 25 e-wallets and banking applications. Ant.
growth market
As part of its overseas expansion, Ant Financial has acquired stakes in several companies, such as Singapore payment company 2C2P Launched in 2022, South Korea’s Kakao Pay was launched in 2017.
Ant Financial has also partnered with national digital payment services, such as SingaporeSGQRMalaysia’s DuitNow QR code and ZeroPay in South Korea last year.
Zennon Kapron, founder and director of consultancy Kapronasia, said in a report: “Ant Group’s early global expansion vision was centered on Southeast Asia. The company has strategic stakes in the e-wallet space in every major Southeast Asian economy.” January report.
Ant Financial is also expanding into emerging markets, such as Sri Lanka And Cambodia.The company has also expanded into Europe and the Middle East, partnering with European e-wallets fertilizer last July and I’m connected February and dubai duty free shop In the Middle East earlier this year.
Feagin said the company also has growth opportunities in mature markets such as Singapore and South Korea, where many people use mobile payments, for example, but still far fewer than in other countries.
“There’s huge room for growth. I think a lot of people just want to use traditional payment methods when they go abroad.”
“When you think about big markets like Thailand and Japan that receive a lot of tourists, the growth opportunity for mobile app payments is huge.”
From problem to solution
Capron said: “With Chinese regulators demanding a restructuring and various geopolitical tensions occurring at the same time impacting its ability to expand in certain markets, Ant Financial revised its global expansion strategy. The result is Alipay+, which aims to Solve the interoperability problem of electronic wallets.
Feagin said the company is targeting countries with large populations first to quickly expand its user base. It also looked at major tourist destinations such as Japan, Thailand and Singapore.
“These are huge markets for people who want to come and visit, so we’re very focused on building their merchant coverage there,” Feigin said.
Now the company is doubling down on its global expansion efforts, eyeing markets in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
–CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.
About The Author
