Alipay+ connects 7 new Asian wallets to China in global expansion

Photo credit: Ant Group

Ant Group has added seven new Asian e-wallets and payment apps to Alipay+ in the Chinese market in a major push to grow its mobile payment ecosystem and attract international travelers to the mainland.

The new additions are OCBC and Changi Pay (Singapore), Naver Pay and Toss Pay (South Korea), TrueMoney (Thailand), mPay (Macao), and Hipay (Mongolia).

The move is part of the “Alipay+ in China” program, which aims to open mobile payments in the country to international travelers.

This means users of these e-wallets will be able to transact at all merchants in China that accept Alipay without having to use or make top-ups in a third-party payment app. Foreign exchange conversions are done at mid-market exchange rates with zero transaction fees, according to Ant Group.

In late 2022, Alipay+ in China was first rolled out on a pilot basis with Kakao Pay, Touch’n Go, and AlipayHK.

Total number of payment transactions made in China across those three payment apps have grown by 47x between March and August 2023, according to Ant Group senior vice president Douglas Feagin, who heads cross-border mobile payment services at Alipay+.

Partnering with Alipay+ gives TrueMoney “a larger coverage of global users in a shorter amount of time,” Monsinee Nakapanant, co-president of TrueMoney operator Ascend Money, told Tech in Asia.

Alipay+ now has 20 mobile payment partners that collectively serve 1.4 billion customers in 56 markets.

China is considered one of the world’s largest cashless economies, with Alipay and WeChat Pay making up 98% of the country’s mobile payments market.

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