In many of the world’s fastest-growing economies, small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) rely on efficient cross-border payment solutions to thrive. While numerous options exist, Ant International’s platform is seeing significant growth.
The global payments giant supported more than 2 billion cross-border transactions in 2025, many originating from rapidly expanding markets like Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Overall, Ant International serves over 50 million merchants globally—most of them SMBs—through its Alipay+ and Antom platforms. These solutions allow merchants to accept a wide range of QR, mobile, and card payments. Ant International plans to further expand its presence in regions like the Middle East and Latin America.
Expanding the Super App
In addition to supporting cross-border payments, Alipay+ operates as a unified wallet gateway, connecting global merchants to a plethora of payment types. This platform should not to be confused with the Alipay consumer app, which, along with WeChat, dominates payments in China.
These super apps have evolved far beyond payments, becoming a one-stop shop for virtually all consumer needs. One of Ant International’s goals in expanding the Alipay+ gateway is to develop similar digital wallet and super app ecosystems in other markets. Alipay+ already integrates with many leading domestic mobile systems, such as Indonesia’s DANA and Thailand’s TrueMoney.
From Domestic Systems to Global Reach
As these technologies have streamlined global communications, demand for cross-border payments has accelerated. However, international transactions have long been plagued by challenges, including high fees, low visibility, and slow settlement times.
Connecting domestic mobile and real-time payments systems has been an oft-proposed solution for these issues. For example, the European Union recently unveiled plans to tie into India’s UPI real-time payments system for cross-border payments.
As a global payments ecosystem, Ant International is uniquely positioned to become a major player in the market. In addition to its mobile payments infrastructure, Ant International has developed a blockchain that could bring the efficiencies of digital assets to its platform.
Case in point: Ant International and HSBC recently partnered to pilot cross-border tokenized deposit transfers over the Swift network, leveraging Ant International’s blockchain.
