Ant Group

Alipay wants to leverage the millions of Chinese customers who travel abroad by offering them services in different parts of the world.

Ant Financial raised its agreed offer for MoneyGram International Inc. by 36 percent as the financial-services company controlled by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma tries to top a competing offer and overcome security concerns.

As more of China's citizens engage in travel and commerce across the nation's borders, more companies want to help them pay and collect money. Many of China's dominant payment brands are extending their reach globally, but U.S. and European companies are also focused on this audience.

China-based Ant Financial is preparing to fight for MoneyGram despite a rival bid from Euronet Worldwide, based on signals the company sent today in an open letter to the money-transfer company’s management, employees and customers.

Ant Financial said it’s considering whether to make a higher offer for U.S. money-transfer firm MoneyGram International Inc., after that company said an unsolicited takeover bid by a smaller, little-known rival could be a better deal.

JD.com Inc. agreed to sell its finance arm for 14.3 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) in cash while retaining a share of its future profits, part of a deal to spin off the fast-growing division and create a strong rival to billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial.

Ant Financial, the parent of China’s largest online payment service, is seeking to raise less than $3 billion by issuing debt to fund its acquisitions, people familiar with the matter said.

To date, Ant's Alipay has been comparable to PayPal, seldom venturing beyond payments. The financial products Alipay plans to pursue as it enters new markets put it more firmly in direct competition with mainstream banks.

Alipay's deal to buy MoneyGram for $880 million may be the centerpiece of its strategy to expand beyond China's borders, but it's not its first move in recent months. The Alibaba payments affiliate has already extended its reach in several other ways.

The U.S.-to-China payments corridor is one of the biggest in the world, according to the most recent World Bank data. It is dwarfed only by the U.S.-to-Mexico corridor, which the Trump campaign targeted as part of its border wall plan.

Ant Financial, the company that operates Alipay, is buying MoneyGram for $880 million, its boldest move yet in a series of partnerships and investments that signal an international ambition.

The parent of Alipay is also investigating uses for biometrics and artificial intelligence.

The online payment service Alipay, an affiliate of Alibaba, is extending its collaboration with luxury travel retailer DFS Group as more Chinese citizens increase their travel frequency to overseas locations.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. pioneered shopping on the internet in China. Now it thinks it can teach old-school retailers a thing or two about real-world commerce.

Ant Financial, parent of the Chinese online payment giant Alipay, may soon expand to South Korea with a new service called Korea Pay.

Alipay's fast growth is partly attributed to the huge size of the Chinese market, but it also deploys strategies that can serve as an example for mobile wallets in other parts of the world.

Payments are inevitably merging with social media, but the mix comes with a clear and very public risk if not handled correctly.

Ant Financial’s attempt to add a social-network function to China’s biggest payments platform has backfired.

As more Chinese citizens travel abroad, payment companies are lining up new products and collaborating with third parties to reach the growing market.

Digital payments security provider V-Key will protect the cloud-based payments network of Ant Financial Services Group (Alipay) with its virtual secure element software.