Brief: Ant Financial and Globe roll out cashless payments in the Philippines

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Photo credit: leungchopan / 123RF.

The news (extracted from The Philippine Daily Enquirer):

• China’s Ant Financial and the Philippines’ Globe Telecom have rolled out a new cashless payments option that allows consumers in the island nation to buy goods and services by scanning QR codes with their mobile phones.
• The platform – which uses Globe’s GCash mobile wallet app – is similar to Ant Financial’s Alipay.
• GCash’s “scan to pay” feature was initially launched in the Glorietta shopping mall in Makati. It will be expanded to a number of other malls throughout the Philippines owned by Globe’s parent company, the Ayala Group.

Why it matters:

• This is the latest in a string of deals from Ant Financial that has seen it expand its influence over cashless payments industry in Southeast Asia.
• With its Alipay service already widely adopted in China, the Alibaba affiliate is seeking out growth opportunities abroad. It is mainly doing this through partnering with large companies – particularly with telcos that run local mobile networks – and investing in joint ventures.
• The GCash tie-up fits this pattern, and follows Ant Financial’s investment in Globe’s fintech venture Mynt earlier this year. As part of the deal, Ant Financial acquired 45 percent of the subsidiary, with Globe and Ayala splitting the remaining 55 percent between them.