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Hello there,
I have been meaning to send a baby shower gift to a friend in Sweden, but it has turned out to be harder than I’d thought. My go-to ecommerce website, Amazon India, does not ship products directly to Europe. I also did not like the limited options for baby apparel on Amazon Sweden. All I came across were flower- and cake-gifting websites.
I suppose that despite the so-called ecommerce boom, cross-border shopping is still a relatively unexplored opportunity. In India, things are definitely still at an early stage: Flipkart parent Walmart, for instance, is exploring a marketplace feature to enable Indian manufacturers to sell in the US and Canada. Amazon is also running its flagship global selling program for exporters across India.
Cross-border payments, on the other hand, seem to be further along. Tech giants and even national governments in Southeast Asia are exploring this vertical, especially as people resume international travel.
One such player is Ant Group, whose new payments system, Alipay+, allows domestic e-wallets to work across borders. In this week’s Big Story, my colleague, Melissa, dives into the potential of Alipay+ and finds out if it could script a successful chapter for the Chinese fintech giant in Southeast Asia.
In the Hot Take, I look at the recent bouquet of license approvals from Singapore’s central bank and how they can advance fintech players’ plans.
– Samreen
THE BIG STORY
Behind Ant Group’s revived SEA ambitions
Image credit: Timmy Loen
The firm has dialed up efforts to grow its cross-border network Alipay+, indicating that digital payments in Southeast Asia is again a priority.
THE HOT TAKE
Mass approvals by MAS and what they mean for these fintech firms
Photo credit: Shutterstock
NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
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