China

The retailer combines WeChat, digital checkout and coupons to reach a wider market, says Azoya's Franklin Chu.

Twelve banks joined the Tencent financing deal, which initially had a $6 billion size.

Kate Fitzgerald, senior editor at PaymentsSource, talks to Eric Grover, principal at Intrepid Ventures, about the political activities that hinder the expansion of payment systems.

Ant Group Co.’s valuation may be cut further under new measures proposed by China to curb market concentration in its online payments market, according to new estimates from Bloomberg Intelligence.

ByteDance, owner of short video sharing platform services Douyin (China) and TikTok (U.S.), has reportedly launched a payment service for the 600 million users of the Douyin platform.

Thousands of U.S. merchants are weighing measures to freeze acceptance of Alipay and WeChat, two of the eight Chinese mobile payment apps that would be blocked if outgoing President Trump’s recent executive order goes into effect.

Billionaire Ant Group Co. co-founder Jack Ma skipped a recent taping of an African TV program he created, spurring speculation online about his whereabouts and the outcome of an investigation into his internet empire.

Card payments can't always cut it in different countries, says PPRO's Steve Villegas.

When the Chinese banking authorities finish reshaping Jack Ma’s empire, the only thing he may have left is Alipay — which would still be the world’s most popular mobile and online payments app.

Jack Ma’s besieged Ant Group Co. is planning to fold its financial operations into a holding company that could be regulated more like a bank, according to people familiar with the situation, potentially crippling the growth of its most-profitable units.

By allowing access to public chains, CBDCs could render much greater, and even revolutionary, functionality, says Cypherium's Sky Guo.

Suning.com Co., one of the largest retailers in China, is considering selling a stake in its e-commerce business as it aims to ease financing pressures, according to people familiar with the matter.

India banned another 43 Chinese apps including some of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s key shopping services, expanding its mobile blacklist to more than 200 applications.

Alipay’s assembling a portfolio to stitch together a multinational financial services ecosystem. The mobile payments titan’s IPO will provide an enormous war chest to develop new services, turbocharge international expansion, and fund acquisitions, says Intrepid Ventures' Eric Grover.

The months-long saga of Bytedance’s forced sale of TikTok in the U.S. is finally close to the finish line, and Walmart stands to gain new social tools and youthful consumers in its battle with Amazon and other brick and mortar chains.

The pandemic and subsequent economic crisis have raised the stakes, since the government’s role in recovery and how stimulus is delivered — and policies impacting the goals of card and technology companies — will be largely determined by the philosophy of leadership.

The Trump administration has barred the use of TikTok and WeChat inside the U.S., including a direct ban on WeChat Pay, setting up potential retaliation against U.S. companies that could interrupt international payment flows.

The controversial TikTok U.S. divestiture is inching toward a conclusion, but the battle over how and where data is collected has become a geopolitical barrier to international e-commerce growth that goes far beyond the Chinese video-sharing app.

An acquisition of the social app would bring with it users and data that can fuel Walmart, Microsoft or Oracle’s e-commerce and marketing battles against top competitors.

The global digital currency race has heightened the threat to traditional monetary policy and the dollar’s dominance, enough for the Federal Reserve of Boston to make a concerted effort to keep pace.