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Melissa Goh · · 6 min readBehind Ant Group’s revived SEA ambitions
Image credit: Timmy Loen
In 2016, Ant Group invested in Thailand’s Ascend Money, the CP Group-linked conglomerate that operates the e-wallet TrueMoney, kickstarting what would be a series of fintech investments across Southeast Asia.
In the years following that, the Chinese financial giant picked up stakes in GCash in the Philippines, Dana in Indonesia, and Touch ‘n Go in Malaysia, hinting at larger regional ambitions.
But it wasn’t until recently that Ant Group started stringing them together. Alipay+ connects domestic e-wallets with overseas merchants to allow them to work across borders.
What this means is that people can make payments while abroad without switching to another digital wallet. On the other end, merchants can gain exposure to consumers across the region by using just one network.
Ant Group claims to have 2.5 million businesses and 1 billion e-wallet users on Alipay+, though it’s unclear how many are actively using it.
Alipay+ is operated by the international business arm of Ant Group and supports 15 payment methods, many of which are offered by companies that the company owns stakes in.
While it’s been two years since Alipay+ was rolled out, Ant Group has cranked up efforts by a notch in the past six months, coinciding with a resumption of overseas travel.
In September, it partnered with Akulaku to expand the Indonesia-based firm’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) offerings across its merchant network. The following month, Ant Group introduced Alipay+ in Japan and increased the total number of overseas payment methods accepted in Singapore to six.
“If you notice in the past, [Southeast Asia] was a priority for a few times, and now it’s again the priority,” says Jianggan Li, founder and CEO at venture outfit Momentum Works. Ant International has “evolved its strategy a few times in this region,” he tells Tech in Asia.
Li notes that while many portfolio firms benefited from Ant Group’s product, operations, and tech expertise in their earlier days, the role that the Chinese titan plays has “declined over the years” as these companies matured, pushing it to “constantly create new initiatives” to justify its value.
Ant Group’s botched IPO and an increased oversight on digital payments by Chinese regulators have compelled the firm to create new revenue streams.
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The firm has dialed up efforts to grow its cross-border solution Alipay+, indicating that digital payments in Southeast Asia is again a priority.
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