Ant Group has officially welcomed seven prominent e-wallets and payment apps from across Asia to join the “Alipay+-in-China” Program (A+China Program). Users of mPay (Macao SAR, China), Hipay (Mongolia), Changi Pay (Singapore), OCBC (Singapore), Naver Pay (South Korea), Toss Pay (South Korea), and TrueMoney (Thailand) can now utilize their familiar home e-wallets on their mobile devices to seamlessly make payments within the vast merchant network of Alipay while in the Chinese mainland.
This expansion brings the total number of overseas e-wallets accepted in China to ten. AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, China), Touch ’n Go eWallet (Malaysia), and Kakao Pay (South Korea) initiated the Program in late 2022, collectively catering to a population of over 175 million individuals in Southeast and East Asia.
Users of these e-wallets can use their preferred payment app wherever Alipay is accepted, ensuring secure, frictionless, and cashless transactions, with transparent and competitive exchange rates. Additionally, they can access exclusive promotional deals through Alipay+ Rewards, a digital cross-border marketing hub integrated into select wallet apps. The e-wallet providers are also offering customer support to their users while roaming, leveraging the smart payment technology capabilities of Alipay+.
With the A+China Program, Alipay+ has also officially onboarded five new mobile payment partners, including Hipay, Changi Pay, OCBC, Naver Pay, and Toss Pay, into its global merchant network. Developed by the International Business Group of Ant Group, Alipay+ offers a range of cross-border mobile payment, marketing, and digitalization solutions, connecting global and local merchants with cross-border digital consumers.
Beyond China, Alipay+ spans 5 million merchants across 56 markets and collaborates with over 20 mobile payment partners across Asia, collectively serving over 1.4 billion consumer accounts. The A+China Program extends the reach of Alipay+ to tap into China’s extensive merchant network, comprising tens of millions of points of sale (POS).
This program has been made possible with the guidance of the People’s Bank of China and the support of NetsUnion Clearing Corporation, e-wallet partners, international card organizations, and other financial institutions in China. Travelers also have the option to link their international bank cards to an updated international version of Alipay for convenient mobile payment and digital services while in China.
Ant Group is launching comprehensive merchant education and marketing campaigns across the Chinese mainland, especially in top tourist cities, to welcome Asian athletes, fans, and travelers.
Douglas Feagin, Senior Vice President of Ant Group and Head of Alipay+ Cross-Border Mobile Payment Services, emphasized the importance of expanding partners and merchant networks while enhancing digital operational capabilities for SMEs as part of Alipay+’s future strategy. He highlighted the increasing diversity of mobile payment providers joining the ecosystem of cross-border digital commerce and committed to investing in payment and digital marketing technologies to facilitate robust, omni-channel growth for partners and merchants.
The rapid growth of cashless transactions in China through the pilot A+China wallets, including Kakao Pay, Touch ’n Go eWallet, and AlipayHK, has seen a 47-fold increase in the six months from March to August 2023. Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are among the favorite cities for travelers from South Korea, Malaysia, and Hong Kong SAR, with food and beverage, retail, and transportation being the most common scenarios for these transactions.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, by 2030, the number of cashless transactions is expected to double or even triple. While China leads the region in digital wallet usage, the rest of Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, has become the world’s fastest-growing mobile payment market, with FIS research indicating a significant increase in the share of e-commerce transaction value and payment transaction value at point-of-sales for digital wallets in the region (excluding China) between 2018 and 2023.