Chinese fintech giant Ant Group expands overseas payment service Alipay+ to serve visa-free, Lunar New Year travellers

Ant Group, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, is boosting its operations throughout Asia, as the Chinese fintech major seeks to capitalise on the country’s visa-free policy and an anticipated Lunar New Year travel boom.

Ant recently expanded the availability of Alipay+, its cross-border mobile payment service, across Asia and in parts of Europe, covering more than 100,000 stores in Thailand and Dubai, respectively, and 10,000 taxis in 12 Italian regions, the company said on Tuesday.

Alipay+ is designed to help small and medium-sized businesses accept payments from travellers using their own local electronic wallets. It now supports 25 partner e-wallets and bank apps covering more than 88 million merchants in 57 markets, the firm said.

At home, regulatory pressure appears to be easing on Ant after it underwent a major restructuring following the cancellation of its planned dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong in late 2020.

With founder Jack Ma’s voting rights at Alipay having shrunk from over 53 per cent to just above 6 per cent, China’s central bank confirmed last month that the Ant-operated mobile payment app no longer had a controller.

The move is seen as another step forward for Ant to resume its initial public offering, which was derailed following a controversial speech given by Ma about financial regulation.