Online payments

PayPal is launching a cross-border trade service to help small and mid-sized businesses in the U.S. improve their international presence and sales.

Among the sneakers, diapers and pet food for sale on Taobao, China’s biggest e-commerce platform, is a listing that may take up a little more space in the online shopping basket.

Stripe will collaborate with WeChat and Alipay to make it easier for merchants around the world to accept payments from Chinese consumers.

Wirecard's going after a big market. More than 2 million Chinese tourists visit Europe annually, spending on average about US$3,400 each.

The company contends a lot of current payments technology is focused on horizontal companies that are designed to easily enable payments, and are operating agnostic to the type of business that requires a payments gateway,

Consumers using the Alipay app will be able to find nearby merchants that accept the popular Chinese mobile wallet, and receive coupons for local deals.

Retailers are worried about the online giant’s move into bricks-and-mortar retailing. For example, Amazon's $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market Inc. wiped $17 billion off the value of Walmart.

Toronto-based nanopay Corp. is making MintChip, a digital currency it acquired in 2015 from the Royal Canadian Mint, available to merchants looking for a lower-cost payments channel by leveraging digital cash.

Not content to have Amazon and Walmart steal all the thunder, Target has begun a pilot of a grocery delivery service called “Restock,” with terms that are designed specifically to make its rivals look slower and more expensive.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will invest another $1 billion to raise its stake in online mall Lazada Group SA to 83 percent, securing control of a fast-growing startup at the vanguard of its Southeast Asian expansion.

For Google and its peers the fine may be the beginning of increased regulatory scrutiny across other digital services within their ecosystems, including payments.

Visa Inc. is buying a stake in Swedish payments technology firm Klarna AB and forming a strategic partnership, as both companies aim to expand outside their core markets.

As the company diversifies beyond international tuition payments, it's also looking to diversify transaction options.

PayKey enables bank customers to instantly transfer money through popular social media networks and messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Twitter.

The company has added six new markets in Europe, where it has already established a beachhead for its e-commerce technology.

As young people mature, their financial and payment needs mature, as does their use of technology and other emerging innovation.

Bitcoin, and the blockchain system that powers it, is one of several virtual currencies and the value of one bitcoin skyrocketed more than 300 percent in the last year.

After a year on the platform, American Express is more involved than ever in mining Facebook Messenger’s benefits as a tool for payments and financial services.

The exchange is adding Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Dash, Monero, Zcash and dozens of other cryptocurrencies in exchange for U.S. dollars.

Payoneer believes British companies will seek opportunities outside of the EU, leading to international payments demand.