Apps vs. alliances: the SEA playbook of rivals Tencent and Ant

At the recent Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF), Tencent and Ant Group signaled their renewed ambitions for global growth. The Chinese giants were the event’s grand sponsors.

These companies dominate China’s digital payment space and have chosen Southeast Asia as the launchpad for their vision. Their presence at SFF reflects their focus on cross-border payments – a sector projected to reach US$250 trillion in global flows by 2027.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Driven by international trade, ecommerce, and expanding supply chains, this surge translates into US$200 billion in annual revenue for payment service providers, according to Citigroup.

For Tencent and Ant, capturing even a fraction of this market would provide substantial growth, yet their strategies reveal differing visions of how to succeed outside China.

Downloads vs. collaboration

Tencent’s approach to cross-border payments remains tied to its messaging platform Weixin. Therefore, Southeast Asian users have to be part of the Weixin ecosystem to access services run under Tenpay Global, the international payment solution under Tencent.

For overseas users, this typically involves downloading WeChat, the version of Weixin for non-mainland China users. While this is convenient for Chinese tourists and expats, Tencent’s “download-first” model is ill-suited to Southeast Asia’s highly interoperable payment networks.

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In countries like Singapore and Thailand, for instance, users can rely on services like PayNow and PromptPay. These are not standalone apps; instead, they’re systems embedded in local banking apps, enabling cross-border transactions without requiring additional downloads.

Tenpay Global secured a major payments institution license in Singapore, signaling Tencent’s intention to capture regional market share.

In addition, to introduce its palm recognition technology for digital payments in international markets, Tencent announced a partnership with Visa at this year’s SFF.

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This may add a small degree of convenience for some users, but fails to tackle the core question of how Tencent will integrate with Southeast Asia’s increasingly open infrastructure. The company’s solution remains anchored to China-focused WeChat and may alienate existing users of local banking tools.

Same goal, different strokes