The economy is growing rapidly but the popularity of bank accounts is not high. A large number of developing regions, especially Southeast Asia, have become a hot spot for the development of e-wallets. The "2020 Global Consumer Insight Survey" released by PwC shows that Southeast Asia accounts for 6 of the 10 regions with the highest penetration of mobile payments in the world.
The reason is very simple: the user does not have a bank card, but has a mobile phone.
In the Southeast and South Asia e-wallet markets, there are not only independent institutions, but also e-commerce, taxi, social networking, games, and even aviation. Almost every App wants to develop a wallet and engage in a closed loop. The "2021 Mobile Wallet Report" released by Boku and Juniper Research shows that Indian and Indonesian consumers use 2.74 wallets per person. Reserve Bank of India RBI data shows that there were more than 90 local wallets in India at one point. The large number of wallets has become a significant problem caused by the market outbreak.
The reason is also simple: users like to play with mobile phones, institutions like to play with wallets.
However, most electronic wallets are not large in size, and the connection scenarios are closed and limited, so users have to switch back and forth between various wallets, and merchants are helpless about this. In an Indonesian East Java province, a town with a population of less than 200,000, some grocery stores are filled with various POS machines and money collection codes. In order not to block the glass, the boss also pasted the money collection codes in the notebook, just like philatelic collection. This situation is exactly the same as the mainland Chinese market before the bank card network interconnection.
On the other hand, migrant workers in Southeast Asia and South Asia will not only enter cities from rural areas to work, but also have a large number of "cross-border working" situations. The market has higher requirements for cross-border remittances and cross-border consumption than in China. Therefore, it has become a potential trend to aggregate and connect wallets and scenarios in this market.
days ago, as the "business of tomorrow", Ant Group's globalization strategy ushered in the latest progress. On April 18, 2022, Ant Group announced that it had reached an in-depth cooperative relationship with the global payment platform 2C2P through strategic investment. Its Alipay+ global cross-border mobile payment technology solution is moving forward.
acquires stake in 2C2P, and Alipay+ payment channel capabilities have greatly enhanced
2C2P was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Singapore and Thailand.
Before Ant Group acquired shares, 2C2P had received US$1 million in Series A investment from Expara IDM Ventures' angel investment and Digital Media Partners. In 2014 and 2015, it received US$2 million and US$7 million in Series B and C financing, with investors including Amun Capital AG and GMO Venture Partners. In 2016, 2C2P completed another US$8 million Series D financing.
As one of the leaders in Southeast Asia's payment market, 2C2P connects 250 payment methods in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and other regions, providing payment settlement and other value-added services to merchants in vertical industries such as e-commerce, financial services, airlines, tourism, hotels and retail. Cooperating customers include Nok Airways, Lao Airlines Deal.com.sg, UOB , Taihua Farmers Bank, TMB Bank, etc. Aung Kyaw Moe, founder and CEO of
2C2P, said: "Through cooperation with Ant Group, 2C2P will strengthen its technical and product capabilities and provide better services to merchants and partners."
There is no doubt that strategic cooperation 2C2P is another major measure for Ant Group to accelerate its international business. Especially in the Southeast Asia region where it is deeply rooted in, it will help its Alipay+ greatly improve consumers' mobile payment experience.
Alipay+ Mission: Connecting to bring prosperity
President of the International Business of Ant Group Zhao Ying believes that Alipay+ and 2C2P are a win-win cooperation. "2C2P is deeply rooted in Southeast Asia and serves merchants. We believe that through innovative and first-class payment solutions, we can accelerate merchants' digital transformation of and create an interconnected digital ecosystem for the local market."
In 2020, Ant Group launched Alipay+ global cross-border mobile payment solution, whose biggest feature is its cross-border payment capability of "one-one access, one-to-one access".It should be noted that Alipay+ is not the English name of Alipay . Its mission is to strengthen the interconnection between global e-wallets and multiple payment tools. There are more than a dozen wallets connected to Alipay+, including Alipay in mainland China, AlipayHK in Hong Kong, KakaoPay in South Korea, Touch’n Go in Malaysia, EZ-Link in Singapore, Gcash in Philippines, etc. These e-wallets are all Alipay+ wallets. In terms of usage scenarios of
, currently in Lazada, Uber, Facebook mobile applications, the three major airports in Tokyo, Japan, major department stores, drugstores and family convenience stores, and Burger King restaurants in Singapore, in the payment list and the cashier's standing signs, in addition to the familiar Visa, MasterCard and UnionPay , you can also see the Alipay+ logo. For consumers, whether online or offline, you can directly consume by seeing the Alipay+ logo at any cash register around the world.
Picture: Three major airports, major department stores, drug stores and family convenience stores in Tokyo, Japan were the first to use Alipay+
data shows that since the launch of Alipay+, it has served more than 1 million merchants worldwide. The first to try the waters include more than 1,500 chain restaurants in the eight Asian-Pacific countries, including the well-known Burger King and Tims Coffee. Recently, this period includes 6,000 stores of Müller, the oldest "country among the country" in Europe, and 6,000 stores of Müller, a well-known pharmaceutical cosmetic brand in Germany and Austria. They all support Alipay+ payment, greatly improving consumers' shopping experience.
In South Korea, after the New World Duty Free Shop and Lotte Duty Free Shop announced its access to Alipay+ in 2021, GS25, the most popular convenience store among locals, has also become the first Korean local convenience store brand to join Alipay+. In April this year, more than 15,000 GS25 chain stores will upgrade new integrated solutions. Jung Jae Hyung, head of the convenience store business department of GS Retail, "As overseas tourists gradually return, being the first to connect to Alipay+ can provide more convenient daily services for overseas tourists, which will help increase the retail sales of GS25 in the long run."
In Malaysia, local service provider Razer Fintech has joined hands with Ant to connect Alipay+ innovative solutions to Malaysia , covering many scenarios such as local tourism, groceries, food and beverages, and taxi rides. Lee Li Meng, CEO of Razer Fintech, said: "Innovative digital solutions are the key to accelerating the digital transformation of the service industry. Through a simple integration, Alipay+ can connect local merchants with global digital payment methods, thereby alleviating the pain points of cross-border payments and helping more merchants discover new growth opportunities."
In fact, in the past half century, there are two main payment options available in global business scenarios, including cash and bank cards such as Visa/MasterCard. The emergence of e-wallets and multiple payment methods has given consumers new options, especially for users without bank cards. Network-connected universal not only directly improves the user experience of e-wallets, but also brings Asia's latest consumption power to merchants. Connecting to Alipay+ means recovery and growth.
Alipay goes overseas from "ship building" to "turnkey"
If you observe the growth trend of the payment market for a long time, it is not difficult to find a significant feature: as long as electronic payment develops to a certain level, there will be a need for connection. Visa, MasterCard and the cross-border payment system led by various countries have all started.
In the Southeast and South Asian payment markets, in addition to the electronic wallet interconnection dominated by Alipay+, all parties are seeking to "open up" to varying degrees. For example, India and Singapore have promoted the opening of a rapid payment system between the two countries. At present, the total cross-border payments and remittances of the two countries each year exceed US$1 billion; PayPal's business focus in India will fully shift to cross-border trade of enterprises; Visa and Singapore's e-commerce Shoppe, wallet YouTube, Stripe and Singapore's GrabPay have reached cooperation in the field of cross-border payments.
All parties "open up" to solve different demands on different tracks.For example, the interconnection facilitated by the government is mainly to solve the problems of cross-border transfers and remittances; card organizations such as Visa and MasterCard cooperate with e-wallets to provide their card-binding users with more convenient transaction methods; Alipay+'s playing rules can be summarized as "connecting global merchants with one hand and connecting various wallets with the other hand."
Alipay began to "go overseas" in 2013, focusing on outbound travel, serving Chinese tourists to "buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, and even posted a blue payment code in the mall of Arctic Circle . Recently, Alipay has accelerated its intensive implementation in both , Eurasia, . In the first week of April alone, more than 70,000 new stores were added to Germany, Austria, Malaysia and South Korea. By connecting global merchants, Alipay can directly reach a wide range of consumption scenarios.
Since 2015, Alipay has begun to invest and jointly build wallets in Southeast Asia and South Asia. In four years, it has won nine local versions of "Alipay" serving local people in Hong Kong, South Korea, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan , Thailand, Bangladesh , and Malaysia. Among them, Paytm in India is the fourth largest e-wallet in the world.
It is worth noting that in addition to many "brothers", there are also some outsiders, such as Singapore's EZ-Link. In the future, Alipay+ is likely to further open up its ecosystem and scenarios, and connect its out-of-system wallets and even banks, which will become a wider international e-wallet payment network.
If the local wallet created by Alipay technology output, equity investment, localized team building, etc. belongs to the "sea shipbuilding" model, then Alipay+, which is connected as a mission and is more inclined toward technical solutions, is the "turnkey" light model.
In the past few years, China's mobile payment development has been leading the world, and Chinese companies have accelerated their overseas travel, which has also allowed the communication and integration of payments to penetrate into everyone's life, becoming an important part of breaking down the barriers of communication, strengthening interactive understanding, and helping to achieve "people-hearted communication". With the construction of the "Belt and Road", China's mobile payment and the resulting digital economy are widely accepted by the world. I believe that this is one of the gifts that China contributes to the world today.
