Trends

Ant Group expands globally with cross-border payments service Alipay+

Ant Group is looking to boost its global presence as it seeks to connect mobile payment apps around the world.

AuthorAria Jiang

Reading Time2 min

PublishedMay 8, 2024

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Headline

Ant Group is looking to boost its global presence as it seeks to connect mobile payment apps around the world.

Context

China’s Ant Group is looking to boost its global presence via its digital offering, Alipay+, as it seeks to connect mobile payment apps around the world. Also read: Ant eyes Europe and US for its Alipay+travel payment service

Evidence

Pending intelligence enrichment.

Analysis

“What we found is that people want to use their home e-wallets when they travel abroad. So, they don’t want to have to load their card into another app that they don’t know as well,” Douglas Feagin, senior vice president of Ant Group, an affiliate of Chinese tech giant Alibaba . The group’s global arm, Ant International, introduced Alipay+ in 2020, allowing foreigners to use apps from their home countries to make payments in China by scanning QR codes of Alipay – Ant Group’s largely domestically-focused platform – and in other countries via local partners. Also read: Alipay launches blockchain vouchers at milk tea shops in Asia “We see a huge opportunity for expansion and the relatively broad coverage we have in Asia – we [would] like to replicate in places like the Middle East, Latam and Europe,” said Feagin. “People from all these regions are going to other regions, so a big opportunity to expand.”

Key Points

Ant Group is looking to expand into the payment markets of Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America with its Alipay+ offering.
“What we found is that people want to use their home e-wallets when they travel abroad. So, they don’t want to have to load their card into another app that they don’t know as well,” said Douglas Feagin, senior vice president of Ant Group.
In 2020, Ant Group launched Alipay+, enabling international users to make payments in China by scanning QR codes through their home country apps and extending services to other countries through local partners.