Ant Group, the Chinese fintech giant behind Alipay, has teamed up with an electronic wallet operator in South Korea to offer cross-border payments to tourists from China and Southeast Asia, according to the South China Morning Post. The move is part of Ant Group’s strategy to grow its overseas presence and tap into the recovery of travel and tourism amid the pandemic.
From Friday, visitors using any of the six digital payments apps in the Alipay+ network, which includes the mainland and Hong Kong versions of Alipay, can pay at shops and restaurants in South Korea by scanning ZeroPay QR codes at the checkout. ZeroPay is a QR-code-based payments service launched by the Seoul city government to help small businesses avoid settlement fees.
Alipay+, a suite of global cross-border digital payment and marketing services, is intended to work like a middleman, enabling local businesses to process a wide range of digital wallets from other countries. It is also a way for Ant Group to expand its footprint in Asia without obtaining local licenses or setting up joint ventures.
The Alipay-ZeroPay partnership comes as travel and tourism rebound globally, with China among the popular travel destinations that are likely to benefit from this trend.
China has become dominated by digital payments, and as was reported in PaymentsJournal, this made it challenging for tourists who did not have Chinese bank accounts. That’s because, until this summer, it was impossible to link foreign credit cards to WeChat or Alipay. Travel to China by foreigners was scant during the COVID-19 pandemic, so this was not a huge problem. But as China opens up to more tourists, it wants to make it easier for people to pay for things. This recent cross-border initiative fits neatly into that approach.
The cross-border payments market is becoming increasingly competitive, as fintech players and traditional financial institutions vie for shares of the growing demand for seamless and secure transactions across borders. Ant Group’s Alipay+ network is one of the leading players in this space, leveraging its huge user base and extensive merchant network in China and Southeast Asia.
