Ant Group

Alipay, the mobile payment app owned by billionaire Jack Ma, is stepping up its competition with WeChat to get more of its 900 million users to tap expanded services in everything from real estate purchases to restaurant and cinema bookings.

The global efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak are leading to drastic actions that test the limits of what consumers will accept when governments and other entities use their payment data.

The financial services affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has agreed to buy a minority stake in Klarna, and will expand its international partnership with the Swedish payments firm.

Alipay and WorldRemit will enable consumers to send remittances to the Alipay app to support broader use for payments and other financial services.

Ant Financial, the online finance giant that operates Alipay, said veteran Simon Hu, 49, would become CEO. He will take over the role from Eric Jing, 47, who will remain executive chairman.

Worldline and CashSentinel will work on services that will fit requirements for traditional online marketplaces for physical products, franchise systems, self-checkout solutions and smart city apps.

Fresh off a public offering and shopping boost, Alibaba Group has entered into an agreement with Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to build digital finance services in areas such as cross-border finance and electronic payment settlement.

Billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial is planning to raise about $1 billion for a fund that will invest in startups from Southeast Asia to India and help strengthen its foothold in fast-growing mobile internet markets, a person familiar with the matter said.

Alibaba’s gigantic stock debut in Hong Kong gives it extra fuel to become a global payments empire.

For decades card networks and issuers outside of China have tried to enter the giant Chinese consumer payments markets, but mostly have run into walls because of shifting regulations.

Ant Financial's success is instructive in the way it developed products that reach many different areas of their finances. And it's hardly the only success story to come out of the Asia Pacific Region, says Rapyd's Eric Rosenthal.

Ant Financial’s Alipay now allows international visitors to China to pay using its popular mobile app, following up from its aggressive campaign to expand Alipay’s acceptance around the world for Chinese visitors.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has bought a third of Ant Financial, the online financial services behemoth controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, augmenting a global array of investments now worth $83 billion.

Brazilian payments provider Ebanx is working with Alibaba Group to test a retail store that combines physical and virtual showcases to allow consumers to obtain Chinese technology products.

Calling it the largest B2B trading platform in the world, Alibaba Group has opened Alibaba.com to small and medium-size U.S. businesses to reach an addressable market of $23.9 trillion.

WeChat Pay and Alipay have huge markets, but China's lack of openness makes a Facebook Libra-style move unlikely, argues Utrust's Filipe Castro

Merchants outside of China who have the QR code technology to accept Alipay and WeChat Pay are part of a growing trend to serve Chinese tourists who are comfortable paying via their smartphones.

European mobile wallet providers Bluecode, ePassi, Momo pocket, Pagaqui, Pivo, and Vipps are working together with China's Alipay for the first time to promote a unified, interoperable QR code that would connect Europe's current fragmented mobile payment landscape.

As threats from nimble fintechs and global e-commerce companies abound, Visa’s turning to open development tools to place itself in the middle of the innovation, rather than making a solitary counterplay itself.

SnapPay has grown rapidly in its role as an acquirer and payments gateway for Chinese mobile payment acceptance in North America, and it is ready to show merchants the next step.