Ant Group and e-wallet partners launch international consumer friendly zones in China

Ant Group, along with 11 overseas payment partners of Alipay+ and major international card organisations, have unveiled in Beijing a nation-wide programme to build international consumer friendly zones across major Chinese tourist and commercial cities.

Working with local merchants, tourism sites and commercial districts, the programme aims to enhance international visitors' experience and drive business for local merchants. The group plans to introduce the programme to commercial districts across 16 cities in China, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chonqing, Hangzhou, and Xi’an. 

For small and medium-sized cities, they will achieve this through extensive coverage of small merchants and communities to ensure that small businesses are aware that they can accept payments by international visitors, said a spokesperson. 

As part of the programme, Ant Group will collaborate closely with partners to significantly enhance accessibility and convenience of the two mobile payment options for international visitors, including Alipay+, which enables overseas consumers to pay with their home e-wallets across China; as well as binding international bank cards to an Alipay app to access an array of local Alipay services from shopping to public transportation. 

The partnership will focus on refining these services at locations most frequented by travellers, including key transportation hubs as well as tourism attractions, hotels, and shopping districts. Initial efforts will focus on expanding bilingual support, offering comprehensive user guides, and bolstering merchant training to ensure a seamless and welcoming experience for global consumers. 

In terms of marketing strategies, the spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that Ant Group will engage in a combination of online and offline marketing efforts to effectively communicate the benefits and accessibility of the two mobile payment options. 

For offline, Ant Group will place stands or flyers of promotions and offers with its partners at point of sales. In Solana, the company has a joint offer with Visa that allows consumers to enjoy discount when making payment with Alipay linked to an international Visa card.

When it comes to online, it will engage users in overseas markets before its journey to China starts by cooperating with airlines, e-wallet partners, and card-issuing banks.

To welcome overseas travellers, Ant Group, in collaboration with partners, has been rolling out extensive merchant and consumer education and marketing campaigns. In the coming month, the group will focus on enhancing the digital payment services for international visitors at the Spring Canton Fair in Guangzhou and the Double Five Shopping Festival in Shanghai.

On China merchant sides, the company will enhance training of their staff to deliver smooth digital payment experience to foreign visitors, while continuing to introduce new promotions to users, according to the spokesperson of Ant Group.

In addition, Alipay+ also partnered with Pakistan's fintech platform NayaPay to allow users to make payments with their e-money account at Alipay+'s extensive network of 80 million merchants in China, as bilateral trade and visits increase. 

NayaPay becomes the 11th overseas and first Pakistani payments platform to "roam" in China, following AlipayHK from Hong Kong, Changi Pay and OCBC Digital from Singapore, HiPay from Mongolia, Kakao Pay, Toss Pay and Naver Pay from South Korea, MPay from Macao, Touch 'n' Go eWallet from Malaysia, and TrueMoney from Thailand.  

Jake Xue, general manager, global business services, Ant Group, said that: “Seamless payment and consumer experience is critical for international travel as well as for broader cultural and economic exchange. Building on the international consumer friendly zones programme and more travel innovations, we will work with partners home and abroad to expand cross-border technology and service cooperation to support our new payment facilitation and opening initiatives.”  

Chao Zhan, vice president of NUCC of China（NetsUnion Clearing Corporation), said that NUCC will actively provide interconnection clearing support for mobile payment services by market institutions both from home and abroad. Going forward, we will enhance our efforts in three aspects: improving the business continuity of binding international cards to domestic payment apps, making more overseas e-wallets available, and increasing the scale of point of sales that accept mobile payment services for international visitors.  

On the other hand, Visa is also committed to collaborating with partners to improve payment experience for international tourists. YIN Xiaolong, vice president, general manager at Visa mainland China, said that tourists can choose the ways to pay with Visa in accordance with their preferences and needs, no matter using international cards, local e-wallets or cash. "We believe the convenient and seamless payment experience will boost economies where individuals, businesses and communities can thrive and promote people-to-people exchanges."  

Danish A. Lakhani, CEO NayaPay, said: "Today marks a monumental milestone in the commercial relationship between China and Pakistan as we witness the establishment of the first direct payment channels between our two nations. This groundbreaking development is made possible through the collaborative efforts of Ant Group, NUCC, and NayaPay, under the auspices of the People's Bank of China and the State Bank of Pakistan. This achievement not only paves the way for a new era of financial transactions but also symbolizes joint innovation between our nations." 

Don’t miss: Alipay+ and e-wallet partners promote sustainable travel with new global campaign

Back in December 2023, Alipay+ unveiled a year-end campaign to promote sustainable cross-border travel with a series of incentives offered to users by global partners of five e-wallets in Asia.

As part of the campaign, travellers will enjoy an array of special offers curated in collaboration with brands, including ComfortDelGro Taxi, Daimaru Matsuzakaya, Galaxy Macau, King Power, and Lotte Duty Free, as well as local small and micro-sized enterprises (SMEs), including Durian BB in Malaysia and IJOOZ in Singapore, aiming to create a diverse and inclusive selection for travellers.

Join us this coming 26 June for Content360 Hong Kong, a one-day-two-streams extravaganza under the theme of "Content that captivates". Get together with our fellow marketers to learn about AI in content creation, integration of content with commerce and cross-border targeting, and find the recipe for success within the content marketing world! 

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